Students from the Mestre Vide school participating in a mock trial, within the Educar en Xustiza program, in Ourense. MIGUEL VILLAR
Elementary students attended a mock trial on bullying
24 feb 2023 . Updated at 7:49 p.m.
The incident could happen in any educational center. Two boys push and call a classmate dumb during recess and, when leaving class, they come to blows and an assault occurs that the victim’s parents denounce before the Justice. This was the common thread of the trial that sat down this Friday in the dock of the defendants of a court in Ourense to two children. As audience, fifty students from the Mestre Vide school, in the capital of As Burgas. They did not know that this was actually a simulationso for more than an hour they listened to the statements not only of the defendants, but also of the complainant’s mother and even a coroner.
Then came the time to hand down the sentence and the representative of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office proposed imposing a year of internment on the defendants in a center for minors. There the farce ended. At that moment, the magistrate informed the students, in the sixth year of primary school, that this was not a real trial and asked them if they agreed with the sentence. What happened then was perhaps not expected, since only three of the young people saw the punishment as correct.
A way of thinking that, precisely, justifies an initiative with which it is intended that students understand that bullying is punishable. This was stated by Juan Manuel Regal Lamelo, tutor of the schoolchildren and director of the Mestre Vide school. “For the children, and even for us, this has been the first time that we have seen a live trial,” said the teacher, valuing the importance of the children knowing the consequences that certain behaviors that sometimes seem normal can have. .
Criminal repercussions
“It is crucial that they know that harassing or insulting another classmate has criminal repercussions, that it is a crime and that from the age of 14 it can lead to measures such as placement in a juvenile center,” Regal explained. “No one can hit or push, and if they do, they should know that there will be consequences,” says the teacher, who appreciates, even more, another positive aspect of this activity. “Citizens have the feeling that Justice is a closed world and It is good that the doors of the courts are opened. I think that it is not bad for the judges », he points out.
The initiative is part of the Educar en Xustiza project, developed by the Colexio da Avogacía de Ourense in collaboration with the Superior Court of Xustiza in Galicia. For the trial, held in a hearing room of the city’s judicial building, they had the collaboration of the magistrate of the Court of First Instance No. 3, Vanesa García de la Paz. The prosecutor Isabel Cortés played the role of her in a farce with which it was intended that the students understand basic aspects of justice and, specifically, of the jurisdiction of minors. In fact, after the case was seen for sentencing, the togada opened a turn so that they could ask about any hard that they had. The concerns of the little ones focused, above all, on knowing if at 11 or 12 years old they can go to jail, they were also interested in knowing what a juvenile center is.
For Judge Vanesa García, actions of this type are “essential to make adolescents aware of the consequences that certain behaviors can have that they sometimes do not perceive as criminal.” She also sees it as crucial that victims of bullying are aware that they the only solution is to tell someone close to you about your suffering: you have to ask for help.