The São Paulo Public Security Secretariat reported that it is investigating the case in which military police officers went to a school, armed, after a father called the police after his daughter had drawn a drawing of an orixá. 
Four military police officers entered Emei Antônio Bento (Butantã), carrying weapons, after receiving a call from their father. The case occurred last Wednesday afternoon (12). The father reportedly said that his daughter was being forced to take an African religion class.
The day before, Tuesday (11), the child’s father had already gone to school to demonstrate his dissatisfaction with the class and had behaved inappropriately, removing the drawing of Iansã that his daughter had made from the mural.
The police officers remained at the school for more than an hour and left at around 5:10 pm along with the student’s father.
In a statement, director Aline Aparecida Nogueira informed that the school “does not work with religious doctrine” and that the “work is centered on the anti-racist curriculum”. She also said she was “coerced and questioned by the team for approximately 20 minutes”.
The case provoked outrage among families who have children at the school. They were willing to give a statement about what happened.
Repercussion
In a note to Brazil Agencythe São Paulo Public Security Secretariat reported that the “Military Police opened an investigation into the conduct of the team that responded to the incident, including the analysis of images from body cameras”. According to the agency, the teacher at the teaching unit filed a police report against the student’s father “due to threats”.
The Municipal Department of Education also commented on the case and wrote that “the father received clarification that the work presented by his daughter is part of the group’s collective production” and that the activity “is part of the school’s pedagogical proposals, which make the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous history and culture mandatory within the City of São Paulo Curriculum”.
The Union of Education Professionals expressed support for those responsible for Emei Antonio Bento and states that the entry of police officers into the unit “generated embarrassment, intimidation and deep emotional distress among the school team”. The union also informed that the activity carried out has pedagogical support and that it “repudiates any violation of pedagogical autonomy, any form of intimidation of education professionals and any situation that puts the physical and emotional safety of educators and students at risk”. The entity requests the investigation of the facts.
Federal deputy Luciene Cavalcanti and state deputy Carlos Giannazi, both from PSOL, called the Ministry of Racial Equality to monitor the case.
