Fijatevos.com - Look Deeper

Two characteristics are endemic in Costa Rican society: peaceful conflict resolution and a high regard for children. Both have come together through the Ministry of Education's efforts that have cut incidences of physical conflict between students in half in six years.

Even though last year there were 35,000 fewer reported cases of school violence as compared to 2003, parents and educators are worried by two incidents that made headlines over the past year: recently a boy brought a pistol to a private school and wounded the director and, a year ago, a fight over a stolen sweater escalated to a point where a girl's ear was bitten off.

Even though neither isolated incident would have been reported outside local papers in the United States, both shocked Ticos, whose country was a pioneer among Third World nations in offering universal education and who enjoy a 93% literacy rate. Schools are regarded as ideally more than institutions, more like refuges of learning.

Referring to the ear-biting incident, a local newscaster said, "No one can imagine this could take place in our country," reported Chrissie Long in her Tico Times news story. This is, after all, the home of the United Nations-sanctioned Peace University where future diplomats are trained in international conflict resolution.

Bullying among students has not escaped press attention here, as is exemplified by stories over the past year in such publications as La Nacion, Al Dia and The Tico Times, and the outspoken concern of parents and educators. Rocio Solís, director of protection of rights at the Education Ministry says the ministry is not letting up in its efforts to setting protocols and educating school leaders in proper response methods.

Still, Ingrid Porras , education coordinator of the non-governmental group, Defense for Children, worries that the schools may still not be making the most effective moves, most often by merely expelling offending students. She argues that this common response merely sends the kids back into a dysfunctional home or violent ambiance that trained them in antisocial behavior in the first place.

"How does it solve anything to take them out of school for two weeks?" Porras asks, "They lose their right to education and it doesn't solve the situation." How would she do it? "What we are proposing is to simply listen to the students." Such counseling will provide the dialogue and mediation, missing when conflict develops into violence, she urges.

Moreover, Porras worries that many students simply drop out after a suspension. This complicates another local worry: an increasing dropout rate that partially negates one of recent president Oscar Arias's important accomplishments: the Avancemos program of scholarships to low income kids to keep them in the classroom. Last year, this country dropped from 48th to 54th position on the UN Human Development Index largely due to low school matriculation.

Long's report shows even non-lethal school violence can have heart-rending results. A year after nearly losing her ear, student Sandra Hidalgo is still afraid to return to school. Worse, she feels the whole country is unsafe and yearns to return to the United States where her parents lived for 12 years. (Her parents encountered immigration problems.) Adding to this post-trauma condition, her ear is still deformed and needs plastic surgery reconstruction, devastating to a 14-year-old girl's self esteem.