Bouncers in the Schools? Maybe there is no other option

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Do children really need “enforcers” in the time where they are supposed to learn?

As we are talking about schools and not juvenile correction institutes, I am wondering why managers of learning institutions have the need to think so deeply and so worryingly about students’ behaviors.

Then it would be interesting to know of this practice is also common among public schools in town. From the pieces I read, it seems it mostly affects only private institutions.

Might it be that all this happens because private schools are normally considered as money machines attracting the interests of scrupulous individuals or groups?

When I read the news, I thought that maybe these schools might be the victims of certain situations that force them to forge “partnerships” with groups or syndicates in the business of extortion.

In exchange of protection and tranquility, the schools have few options but hiring certain individuals coming from these gangs.

Think well, isn’t quite weird that a private college does not even check the background of its security in charges, provided there is a need of hiring them?

It can happen in certain cases: for example the school might have been really unaware of crimes committed by a peon or a janitor but here we are talking about a person in charge of the school and children’s security.

It is like hiring a teacher without even making sure s/he possesses all the required certificates.

According to this logic then if you need a guard or someone in charge of security, the minimum you are going to do if you running a school is to ask the candidates to bring the police’ clearance paper.

I remember some years ago that former combatants that had got affiliated with fringe parties notorious for asking for “donations” were recruited by some agencies or organizations as guards.

With a good reality check, here we are talking about pragmatic practice to avoid issues and reduce the amount of donations to be paid in future.

In a context with weak rule of law and low trust from the security apparatus, these solutions, though not legally justifiable, make sense.

There is no doubt that principals or owners of private schools receive a lot of pressure and, in certain circumstances, they might be forced to pay some racket money to local gangs.

This happens in many parts of the world, including the country where I am from and oftentimes it is the only way to keep going and continue with your life and business.

At the same time, it could be that my reading of the events is totally wrong. Maybe the management of that school simply wanted to offer a help for someone who had a difficult past and was looking for a new start. The fact you got convicted once does not mean, after paying your sentence, you cannot live lawfully for the rest of your life.

Certainly, we cannot generalize: there are lots of security personnel totally dedicated and without any dark pasts.

Position: Co -Founder of ENGAGE,a new social venture for the promotion of volunteerism and service and Ideator of Sharing4Good

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