Marcello de Andrade and Paula Dias – JB – 3/26/04.
MOST RESIDENTS FEAR THE DEVALUATION OF THE PROPERTY, BUT THE CITY HALL PROCEEDS THE PROJECT.
The project to build a school in a condominium in Itanhangá has been a matter of concern for residents. Located on the Jacarepaguá road, in the middle of the Tijuca Forest, the Village da Floresta condominium faces the city's proposal to build a municipal high school in its dependencies. Most residents do not agree with the idea. They fear for the devaluation of real estate and for security.
Federal Deputy Eduardo Paes, at the invitation of the residents, participated in two meetings at the condominium, in the first half of March. Paes promised to analyze the case before the Department of Education. Now, the decision will be in charge of Rio Urbe.
The land that will be able to house the school has about 1,500 square meters and currently houses a garden of eucalyptus trees and a football pitch. Until 2002, every condominium in Barra was forced to give space to the government. The landlord Frederico Coutinho, however, ponders that this does not mean that the lotion is appropriate to house a school.
The 43-year-old architect and decorator Eder Meneghini approves the institution's installation, which would bring improvements to the condominium – including paving the site.
- People have to understand that we will house a school, not a prison. And people who bought land here 20 years ago knew they could share space with a school – he says.
The Municipal Secretary of Education Sônia Mograbi says that the place should house a standard elementary school.
- The project is being prepared. As soon as it is ready, it will be presented to the community, including the residents of the condominium - she explains.
BULLYING, THE SILENT AGGRESSION THAT GROWS IN SCHOOLS
LAURA ANTUNES / O GLOBO / MAR-2004.
X, aged 11, started to lose interest last year in attending classes at the municipal school. Ambassador João Neves da Fontoura, in Rocha Miranda, and showing a deep sadness, detected by the teachers. The reason was within the classroom itself. X was constantly ridiculed by her peers for her frizzy hair. Embarrassment, at first sight an innocent child's play, began to affect the girl's performance.
The humiliation suffered by X is an exemplary case of bullying – aggressive behavior displayed by groups of students against one or more colleagues in an unequal situation. This type of situation has become the target of extensive work carried out by a team from the Brazilian Association of Protection of Childhood and Adolescence – ABRAPIA, in partnership with the Municipal Department of Education, Ibope and Petrobras.
During last year, 5875 students, aged between 10 and 19, from 5th to 8th grade, from 11 Rio de Janeiro schools (nine municipal and 2 private), from the South, North and West zones were interviewed. The result, according to those responsible for the study, was impressive: 40.5% of these students admitted having been directly involved in acts of bullying - 16.9% as targets, 10.9% as targets and perpetrators and 12.7% as authors.
Based on the result of the survey – which ended up being transformed into the book: Say no to bullying, ABRAPIA members held meetings with students and teachers from these schools.
This kind of behavior occurs worldwide. There are cases so serious that they even result in suicide by the target student or in a violent reaction, as has already occurred in the USA, where students invaded the school shooting at random, as a response to the humiliations - says pediatrician Aramis Neto, coordinator of the project.
According to him, one of the most moving accounts came from a director, who felt guilty for not detecting a case in advance:
The fact was only discovered when the target 15-year-old student, considered too introverted by his peers, was beaten in the school bathroom. The humiliations so far had not been noticed by the teachers, since most of the time, the target student does not seek help, preferring silence.
These acts usually occur when no adults are present. At the Thomas Mann School, in Cachambi, the case of a 13-year-old student was identified, who suffered the humiliation of being called ugly and received embarrassing nicknames.
The lectures given by the ABRAPIA team at the school served to look for solutions to the problem: a group of students was assigned to identify these types of cases.
- The student had a great deal of unhappiness. The teachers and advisors then had conversations with the students who were the perpetrators of the bullying so that they could understand how much they made a classmate suffer and if they would like to be in his place. This type of conversation served to improve their relationship a lot.
The reason for bullying is varied: introspective behavior, obesity, a curious name, floppy ears, frizzy hair, skin color,...
According to Dr. Aramis, of the students who revealed in the questionnaire that they had been victims of persecution, 24% said they had been able to minimize the problem by talking to their own colleagues, 11% with teachers and advisors and only 8% taking the problem to their own family.
* The above reports were cited as a complement to the article "Attitude, Prejudice and Stereotype", so the copyright of the reports are due to their respective authors.
