The president of the Central Board of Directors (Codicen), Robert Silva, and the senator of the Broad Front (FA) Sebastián Sabini crossed paths this Saturday through Twitter after teacher students painted graffiti on the walls of the headquarters of the street Soriano and were detained by the police.
The legislator reported the situation through a tweet. In the publication he pointed out: “They were asked for the data and that they had to testify under threat of contempt, they went to headquarters and signed.” “The government criminalizes social protest and curtails freedom of expression,” he claimed.
Silva replied that “it is not about criminalizing the protest” and an exchange broke out. “It’s about respecting public educational facilities that are being recovered with the money from the people,” he explained. And then he insisted: “Please, collaborate understanding that all opinions are valid, respecting the rights of others, basic for social coexistence.”
Sabini said he disagreed: “I don’t agree with anything, we live in a democratic society with freedom of expression, the persecution that they have installed in education has no close precedent, sad examples like this are plenty. Take responsibility for your actions.”
The discussion continued with the Codicen chief expressing that “arrogance and imposition are not worth it.” “You are very wrong, there is no persecution! Freedom of expression has NOTHING to do with confronting educational facades. Also, and as a teacher you know it, there are students with different positions and you have to respect them all. Arrogance and imposition are not worth it” , he specified.
“Do you have any idea how much it costs the town to recover the facades of the educational buildings as well as their general maintenance?” Silva asked. “There are many ways to express themselves and there is no doubt that in education we respect them, now it is not right to do what they do and we must all collaborate,” she added.
Sabini wondered if the “best solution” was to send the police to take statements from the students, to which Silva invited him to “work together” so that these types of episodes do not repeat themselves.
The exchange continued around the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), on which the senator from the Front of the Amphibia limited: “The LUC establishes that if they did not go to headquarters they could be accused of contempt for exercising freedom of expression, prosecuted and not being able to exercise teaching, do you understand the seriousness? You are defending police intervention, not me”.
Silva, for his part, pointed out: “I am defending the money of the people that supports public education and with it we are recovering public buildings. You defend the opposite. In addition, and just in case, freedom of expression is fully guaranteed in all the scopes”.
“Attributing intentions is quite low on your part. I also reiterate that you are trampling on the constitution since you cannot do politics of any kind. This is where the exchange ends,” Sabini replied.
The president of Codicen closed the exchange by clarifying that, whenever Sabini liked, they could talk about it personally: “I don’t know what you mean and we can talk about it whenever you want, since when it comes to the defense of public education, I don’t give up the right to no one”.
