After attack, school in Aracruz struggles to regain confidence – 05/10/2023 – Education

The sign, which previously indicated the start of recess, now evokes memories of a day of terror at the Primo Bitti state school, in Aracruz (ES). Five months after the unit was the target of an attack, teachers, students and staff are trying to regain confidence in the school environment and, even among colleagues, to continue teaching activities.

“I feel a shiver down my spine when the bell rings for break. I pray every day that, after the bell, I only hear the sound of students going down to the courtyard and not the sound of gunshots like that morning”, says lunch lady Maria da Conceição Stefanelli, 68.

On November 25, the signal served as a guide for the shooter to break into the school at a time when most would be out of the classrooms. A few seconds after the start of the break, the 16-year-old teenager, who was a former student of the unit, entered the teachers’ lounge and started shooting. He killed three docents and wounded eight others.

Since then, the sound signal has evoked memories of the day, fear of the attack being repeated and has already led students and teachers to have bouts of crying and anxiety.

In addition to living with everyday situations that trigger trauma, the Primo Bitti community also complains that they received little assistance from the government — there is no protocol in the country for interventions after this type of violence.

In the last ten months, Brazil has experienced an unprecedented wave of attacks on schools, with an average of more than one case every 30 days.

“We are helpless, alone dealing with the trauma of this violence. It has been five months since the attack and there is no plan to help us recover our health, our safety, our school”, says Luiz Carlos Gomes, 51, professor of sociology.

Students, family members and teachers complain about the absence of actions for psychological support within the school.

“After the attack, they painted the school, made a beautiful panel on the front wall and that was it. The recovery plan is this: a make-up. As if a paint bath were going to cure the pain we are experiencing after this violence”, says Gomes .

Of the few physical changes made to the unit is the transformation of the teachers’ room (where the teachers were affected) into a kind of reading room. Still, no one gets to use the space.

“It’s a huge effort to continue teaching after everything that happened. I can’t get into the room where my classmates were shot and killed, I even avoid passing by because it’s hard to control the memories”, says Ana Paula Alvarenga, 53, English teacher.

The feeling of insecurity is so great among students that they say it is common for them to talk about what they would do if they faced a new attack. “We go down to the break and think about how to protect ourselves, where to run or hide. We always talk about it so we don’t get caught off guard again,” says student Ian dos Anjos de Souza, 18.

They also say they have become more attentive and suspicious of the behavior of other students. “After what happened, we start to distrust anyone we don’t know. I get scared when I see a student making more aggressive comments or jokes about the attack”, says student Ester Cristina Silva, 19.

“The other day a boy said he was angry and that, if he could, he would kill everyone too. I went to tell the teachers, but I don’t know if they did anything.”

They say they still feel that even the teachers feared the students after the attack. “You can feel that they don’t have the same trust in the students anymore, that some have become more distant and are holding back to stay in school. And it’s understandable, how do you regain trust after a student shoots at you and your classmates?” , reports Ian.

Cleo Garcia, a researcher at Gepem (Group of Studies and Research in Moral Education) at Unicamp and who participated in a work at Primo Bitti after the attack, says that mistrust and insecurity are common after a trauma of this type, but could be mitigated with a series of continuous and integrated actions.

“It is a very big trauma for the whole community and each one processes the pain and fear in a different way. Therefore, many actions are necessary and need to be combined. Unfortunately, we do not have any plan in the country, there is no budget foreseen to help these schools. That is, they deal alone with all the complexity of this collective trauma”, he says.

Among the necessary measures, Cleo cites the availability of psychological and psychiatric follow-up for all, the provision of extended leave for employees and curricular changes to improve school coexistence.

“The mistrust and hostility in the school environment further undermines overcoming the trauma. It further fuels the context that led to the attack. These schools need help to establish a healthier and more welcoming environment.”

Although there is still no research in Brazil that indicates the consequences after attacks on schools, studies in countries that have lived with the situation for years, such as the United States, point out how devastating the effects of this type of violence on the entire school community can be.

A study by Stanford University identified that 100,000 American children studied, between 2018 and 2019 alone, in schools that were the target of attacks. The research found a higher incidence of antidepressant use and a greater possibility of school dropout and repetition among these students.

Consequences that are already beginning to show the first signs at Primo Bitti, even though there is no follow-up to confirm the situation. All the teachers, staff and students who spoke with Sheet reported having sought psychological or psychiatric care and the use of antidepressants after the attack.

“I can look at the school several times, even if the painting has changed, but I can still see what happened that day. I had to take sleeping pills in the first few months, I managed to stop, but I still go to the psychologist”, says student Lara Ramos da Silva, 16. She is still physically recovering from the attack, as she broke her ankle when she jumped out of a classroom window to escape the gunman.

Teachers and students also say that absences have skyrocketed this year, as alleged threats of new attacks on the school have become frequent. “Almost every week someone receives a threatening message and the rumor spreads. We don’t know if it’s true or not, but after having lived it, I’m not going to risk it. My mother even tells me to stay at home”, he says. Ester.

Another effect already experienced in the school was the loss of teachers. In addition to the teachers who died or are still recovering physically, at least four others are still on leave to deal with their mental health or have asked for transfers.

“I’m only here because of the students, who sent me messages when I was away, asking me to come back. They feel abandoned, they need our support and our presence. But it’s hard to continue”, says Ana Paula.

A Sheet the Secretary of Education of Espírito Santo, Vitor de Angelo, said that all demands from the school community are being analyzed.

He said that there is an intersectoral group composed of the departments of Education, Health, Public Security and Social Assistance monitoring the situation and that at the end of April a prevention and training plan was launched for employees on what to do in an emergency.