Schools must have an ‘anti-bullying’ coordinator next year

The law for the comprehensive protection of children, known as ‘ley Rhodes‘, which came into force at the end of June, establishes that “all educational centers where minors study, regardless of their ownership, must have a coordinator or coordinator of wellness and protection of students. “This person must ensure the prevention, detection and reporting of cases of assaults on minors that occur inside and outside the center, in order to reduce the high rate of violent crimes suffered by children. many of which go unreported.

Likewise, the pioneering norm establishes that there must be a delegate protection, with similar functions, in the entities that carry out leisure or sports activities in which minors participate. And the Sectorial Conference on Childhood and Adolescence, which brings together the Government and the communities, has agreed this Monday that both figures are fully operational in the course 2022-2023, that is to say, from next September.

Likewise, at the meeting it was approved that, during the first quarter of 2022, the recommendations and common criteria that the protocols action against violence that will govern in schools against any indication of abuse, harassment, cyberbullying, gender violence, suicide or self-harm. Likewise, within that period, guidelines will be issued for similar documents that will govern in the field of sports, leisure and detention centers.

The implementation

“The agreement that we bring here today contains a series of actions that represent a quantitative and qualitative leap in public policies for the protection of children against violence. There are many but, due to their importance and their novelty, I would like to highlight one of them, the creation of the figures of the child welfare coordinator and the protection delegate that we promote from the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 “, highlighted the minister Ione Belarra during the celebration the Sectorial Conference, which has been destined to how to develop and territorially execute the law for the protection of children against violence.

“These coordinators and coordinators should be the piece in charge of implementing the plans and protocols in the educational field and in leisure and sports, to listen to minors and their notices about any type of violence and to communicate the situations of risk“Belarra added.

The data

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In Spain, more than 100 complaints for crimes in which the victim is a minor. And these data represent only the tip of the iceberg because many children do not dare to show that they are the object of sexual harassment, assault or abuse at school, their homes or other places. Faced with this, and 12 years after activists and NGOs began their struggle to pass a specific law against child violence, Congress approved the ‘Rhodes law’, named in honor of the pianist James Rhodes, who suffered brutal rapes in his childhood .

The standard incorporates actions in all areas where children live and, therefore, is considered one of the most advanced laws in the world, according to experts.