Mexico: Parents Demand Justice for 37 Abused School Children

Parents are demanding the state investigate a case of sexual abuse which victimized at least 37 kindergarten students within the walls of a private school in Mexico City, allegedly at the hands of an employee.

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Family members filled the streets, protesting the institution’s negligence and demanding the arrest of the alleged culprit known as “Ramon N.”

Victims say, while working at the private school, Marcelino de Champangat, the faculty member was in contact with both kindergarten classes and would lure the children into a dark closet after drugging them.

The parents said they have filed a report with the Central Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of Sexual Offenses, but neither the school nor police officials have responded to their complaints. Relatives have accused the school of dismissing their concerns and the nearly 40 abuse cases targeting children between the ages of two and five.

In a letter written to the President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the delegation of parents urged the official to reconsider the abilities of Mexico City’s head of Education, Luis Ignacio Sánchez, as well as review the Federal Education Department’s Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse Unit.

The school has temporarily closed and suspended its classes.

National statistics show that nearly 4.5 million cases of sexual abuse occur during childhood; only 10 percent of them are ever reported, while only 1.5 percent are ever brought to trial. There are 67,548 cases of sexual crimes, 28, 672 happen to women between 0 and 15 years of age. Over half of the 12,576 male victims of sexual abuse are younger than 15 years old, the Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (Ceav) reports.