A thunderous blast breaks through the school and the students throw themselves to the ground and protect their heads with their arms: it is the protocol in the event of a shootout in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Venezuela.
Three youths constantly bang on a sheet of tin to simulate gunshots during a routine drill.
From the first grade of primary school to the last grade of secondary school, your peers are quick to react. Some, in the halls; others, in the corridors and courtyard of the Manuel Aguirre School, in the gigantic favela complex of Petare, in Caracas, where crime and drug trafficking strike hard.
A few days ago there were shootings between gangs that forced the temporary suspension of classes.
The drill takes about 20 minutes, in which the brass does not stop ringing. He caught a class of the youngest in Sports class when they were playing with some hoops. Once on the ground, they squat down to a “safe space” marked on a wall.
There are children who scream while curling up on their stomachs, also using their arms to cover their ears.
The bell rings three times to close the protocol, which will be repeated in two months. The International Committee of the Red Cross (Cicr) did the training in this and other Fe y Alegría schools, a religious educational organization that serves popular sectors.
“Just as we teach reading and writing, we have to give the kids tools so they can defend themselves and apply them at home,” explains Yanet Maraima, director of Manuel Aguirre, with 900 students.
“Scared of going to school”
The school is in the 24 de Marzo sector of La Bombilla, among an endless number of exposed brick houses and zinc roofs that invade the mountain, connected by alleys and stairways.
LViolence is so daily that there are children who distinguish with terrifying normality a pistol shot from a rifle shot or the distance at which a shooting occurs.
“It’s a dangerous area,” says Breylis Breindenbach, a 16-year-old high school senior. “Sometimes I’m afraid to come to school.”
Petare registered a rate of 80 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a reference given the lack of official figures. It is more than double the already alarming national indicator (35.3), which is six times the world average.
At the Jesús Maestro School, also run by Fe y Alegría, in Petare, Sister Marisela Mujica leads a prayer.
“We spent a very tense week, we are going to pray for peace,” he instructs the students lined up in the courtyard. “What do we want?” she asks. “Peace!” they reply.
Two gangs dispute control of the José Félix Ribas neighborhood, where the school is located.
“The law puts the weapon (…), you have to fight so that the child does not see it that way,” the nun told AFP.
Jesús Maestro has 722 preschool and primary school students, but when there is tension not even 200 attend.
There are families that get caught up in the bullets and are afraid to leave the house or are even involved in the situation.
And also the teachers fear. Some are forced to resign for mental health.
“You never get used to the shots, you live with that constant concern,” says its director, Sister Ivonne González. “It’s like locating a school in the Far West.”
“Keep calm”
PSimilar rotocolos exist in countries with high rates of violence such as Brazil or Mexico.
Rio de Janeiro, also with areas dominated by drug trafficking or parapolice militias, has applied them since 2009 in its more than 1,500 schools. “Having a school prepared to live in this environment is very important. Hopefully one day it will no longer be necessary”, says Renan Ferreirinha, municipal secretary of Education.
And such devices were also developed in the Mexican states of Baja California Sur or Zacatecas.
The most important thing is to internalize the procedure, says Sister Ivonne.
A student told him that he was caught in a shooting in the street, he recounts. “What did you do?” he asked her. ‘Throw me to the ground and get under a car'”.
At the Manuel Aguirre School they have found marks of shots, although no confrontation has been reported during school hours.
Worse luck has run to Jesús Maestro, where about three weeks ago they heard shots in the middle of the day. One teacher, who was new, made a mistake and led the students to a vulnerable area.
The incident served to reinforce the procedure. Sister Marisela goes through each room to have everyone ready in case of an emergency.
It starts with a question: “What is the first thing we should do?”
A girl answers correctly: “Keep calm.”