The offer is insufficient for the serious problem of violence that the country is going through and that years ago sneaks up to classrooms in its different forms: sexual abuse, harassment, increase in Bullying either You beat teachers and students.
Cases of violence in schools
The most adverse impact of this crisis became evident on September 22, when within the College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) South, a student murdered another 16 -year -old student.
The tragedy recalled the need to address mental health also in schools and put the issue again on the public agenda. Previously, the same was done with other unfortunate cases, but in the end no forceful changes were implemented.
The SEP data about schools with psychologists, for example, remained almost invariable since 2017, a year in which a 16 -year -old student shot at her teacher and classmates at the American school of Northeast, in Monterrey, Nuevo León.
This lack persisted despite a second aggression. Also in this northern city, four months after that shooting, a student stabbed another student outside the National College of Technical Professional Education (CONALEP).
In 2023, a high school student hit with a stone the head of one of his classmates while a group of students filmed. The 14 -year -old teenager died after the aggression in Teotihuacán, State of Mexico.
“The South CCH tragedy is not an isolated event, but a social wound that highlights the lack of integral prevention and mental health care aimed at girls, boys and adolescents in Mexico,” explains Tania Ramírez, executive director of the Network for the rights of childhood in Mexico (Redim).
“It reminds us that behind each expression of violence there are structural deficiencies, such as the absence of accessible and timely mental health services,” he adds.
PSYCHOLOGY SERVICES IN SCHOOLS
After those cases, there was talk of including more psychologists in schools. But, until 2024, only 693 public primaries, of the 86,800 nationwide, reported having a psychology specialist. The same as 1,064 secondaryly of a total of 35,800 registered in the 2022-2023 school year.
Virtually all these campuses have a psychologist in their templates, except for some exceptions. For example, in six primaries there were up to three specialists and in a high school in the State of Mexico, seven.
“In Mexico, secondary and high school schools lack sufficient psychologists and specialists to serve thousands of adolescents living anxiety, depression, exclusion and daily violence,” says Ramírez.
