Fijatevos.com - Look Deeper

The death July 11 of Heredia private school principal Nancy Chaverri, 39, who was shot in the neck by a resentful 17-year-old student, has fueled a national debate on two fronts: the balance between school discipline vs. student rights and gun control. Chaverri lingered on life support at Hospital Mexico for nine days before succumbing to her wound. (See previous story.)

Gun purchases have skyrocketed during the past decades in response to citizen alarm at rising violence in this traditionally tranquil country. The nation's constitution has no equivalent of the U.S.'s second amendment, so gun control would be possible for lawmakers to pass, though  politically unpopular.

Nancy Chaverri's cousin, Alejandra, who lives in Palo Alto, CA,, raised a call for tighter regulations on gun  ownership in a Perspective column in last week's edition of the English-language publication The Tico Times, arguing that "The adolescent who shot Nancy might not have committed this criminal act if a gun had not been accessible to him." Nor is Alejandra the only family member campaigning for better firearms control

She also reported that the student's motives for the shooting, which were not disclosed to the press by police, were related to disciplinary action by Chaverria for dress code and conduct violations. The leading Spanish-language newspaper, La Nación, had extensive coverage of the tragedy, including interviews with students, staff and relatives in its Sunday magazine, Proa, but the public defender for the student managed to quash the stories.

It is unclear if the attorney actually obtained a court injunction against publication or merely threatened to do so, but the paper was forced to tear apart the magazine, which had already been printed, in order to substitute a version that purged the stories, a costly expediency that shows how jealously this society guards the right of minors.

This brings up the second portion of the debate, school discipline vs. civil rights. In last Sunday's edition of La Nación, teachers complained that they are severely constrained in maintaining discipline in the classroom, especially if parents refuse to cooperate. The pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme from the bad old days of the early 20th century when physical discipline was countenanced in schools, some feel.

Minister of Education Leonardo Garnier also called for more parent cooperation in the issue. In many instances, parents, especially in rural areas, do not exert enough guidance and discipline at home, allowing the children to run wild like weeds. In others, the children are coddled without demands being made upon them.

In simpler times, Costa Rican rural children, once passing toddler stage, were given home duties, the girls in the kitchen and the boys working alongside the men in the fields. This instilled a strong work ethic, gave them a sense of importance and occupied free time when not in school. This is no longer the case generally and even the tradition of entire families picking coffee at harvest time has given way to farmers employing Nicaraguan immigrants, many of them illegal, in these tasks.

La Nación published a series of student obligations at school alongside a column containing their rights. It was all very clearly set down but, also clearly, will not put an end to the debate.