Between 2009 and the present, 193 cases of mistreatment and sexual abuse of students in Bogota high schools have been reported, according to a city council candidate.
Liberal Party Bogota Council candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay said that according to a study by the District Education Secretary, between November 2009 and the first trimester of 2011, 53 cases of alleged sexual abuse have been reported and 140 of child mistreatment, in city high schools.
According to the candidate, teachers are implicated in more than 90 percent of the sex abuse cases, and in at least 60 percent of the child mistreatment cases, RCN Radio reported.
Uribe Turbay also criticized the fact that only 11 of the 193 cases have been processed, and that the most serious sentence received by the dozens of aggressors was a three month suspension.
“They need more speed and severity in the punishments. It is not possible that the worst sanction be a 90-day suspension; they have to take exemplary measures, for example, we propose that the dozens with this type of antecedents don’t come into contact again with the boys and girls in any highschool in Bogota and the country,” he said, according to Caracol Radio.
At the same time, the candidate praised the fact that the Education Secretary has placed attention on the matter, stating that this is a “big step” because, “This way we can begin to put an end to the culture of silence that surrounds this subject.”