I was banned without defense, says Osesp subscriber accused of discrimination

Retired professor from the Department of Mathematics at Unesp in Rio Claro, José Jairo da Silva, sought the People’s Gazette to report his banishment from the membership of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (Osesp) as a result of an internal procedure in which he was denounced for alleged “acts of discrimination against persons with disabilities” and “intimidating and threatening acts to the integrity employee physical.

A People’s Gazette, the professor said he was the victim of disciplinary action in a confidential process in which it is not known who accused him. “I was banned without a chance of defense,” he said.

Jairo became the target of an investigative procedure by the Osesp Ethics Committee in December 2022 because of an incident that occurred on April 2 of last year, when Osesp was presenting a concert for subscribers.

The show was reportedly interrupted by the screams of a child a few rows above where Jairo was sitting. Disturbed by the interruption, the teacher sought out the organization of the event to complain. From there ensued a confusion that ended up in a police case.

It turns out that the child who erupted in screams during the performance of the concert was autistic and had a hearing impairment. It is worth noting that the concert took place on the same day as World Autism Awareness Day.

The teacher says he had no way of knowing about the child’s condition and would only have questioned the organization because of the interruption, since the show could not be continued if the interruptions did not stop.

“An orchestra has several obligations: to form an audience, to promote musical art, to promote social actions, of course, but, above all, to offer music of the highest level in ideal performance conditions, never, of course, all at the same time. Paid concerts cannot be occasions for social action. For that, there are special concerts, for special people, including”, said the professor when exposing the case in a recent publication on his social networks.

To Gazeta, Jairo also said that the public was “subjected, without prior notice, to a situation of embarrassment without regard to the rights that he (the public) had acquired along with the purchased ticket”.

See the subscription cancellation letter issued by Osesp

Jair also complains about the exposure of his name in left-wing newspapers shortly after the incident. For the professor, this could characterize a type of “arming” to give visibility to the so-called anti-capacity agenda.

What does OSESP say?

Contacted by the newspaper, Osesp preferred not to comment on the case against the professor “to maintain confidentiality with respect to all the people involved”, but said that “the result reached was the result of an extremely careful process”.