Why are schools being attacked?

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By MARCOS FRANCISCO MARTINS*

The school is not an institution isolated from the context. What happens in it is dialectically articulated to the dynamics of the totality of social life.

This article aims to present an answer to the question expressed in the title and, for that, it keeps a textual articulation divided into three parts. In the first and longest of them, the economic, political-ideological, cultural and social “soup” is presented, at the international and national levels, which gave and still gives support to the attacks against schools. In addition, the general traits of “narratives”, a fashionable word, are defined, comparing them with “discourse” (Chart 1), in order to indicate, didactically (Chart 2), which schools are being attacked because they are understood by neofascists[I] as a pole opposing the guidelines they defend.

In the second part, a distinction is made between “violence in schools” and “violence against schools” (CARA, 2022), even citing quantitative data to support the arguments.

In the third and last textual section, there are guidelines to combat violence “in” and “against” schools, indicating initiatives to be developed by society, Departments of Education, schools and parents and/or guardians.

It is concluded that these attacks are not a “natural” social dysfunction, but a neo-fascist strategy to create problems and present coherent solutions to the agendas they defend.

Why are schools the preferred target of neo-fascist attacks?

From the recent attacks against schools in Brazil, the question arises: why were they chosen as a target and not any other space? This is not a simple question, but it deserves the heuristic effort in search of an answer, since the existence of students and education professionals depends on it, as well as the fragile Brazilian democratic civility.

To outline an answer, initially, it is important to say that the school is not an island. It integrates a totality, a larger context, formed by various interconnected, interrelated, intercommunicating elements, or rather, which maintain reciprocal, dialectical relationships among themselves. So, to understand what is happening to schools, it is inexorable to understand the context that makes up the current scenario, particularly that of the last few decades.

As in the past, recent changes in social life resulted from articulated economic, political, social and cultural processes.[ii] experienced in context. It should be said that, internationally, the economy has collaborated to produce various instabilities, especially in the world of work, leaving youth with no prospect of a decent life. Toyotism and the flexibility/integration of production chains developed in a scenario of capitalist crises, whose direction was given by neoliberalism, to which the market is the demiurge of the world and turns everything into merchandise. Kuenzer (2004) is correct when he says that it is the structural duality of “inclusive exclusion” and “excluding inclusion” that is experienced: the first refers to the universe of work, which excludes workers from the formality and the includes informality; the second refers to education, which includes masses in schools and forms them without giving access to knowledge historically produced by humanity and synthesized by science, philosophy and the arts, and with an objective aimed at the market (informal!), entrepreneurship, for example .[iii]

This economic-educational process was accompanied, politically, by the emergence of movements such as neo-fascism, which have international articulation. One of the facets of this authoritarian and obscurantist movement, which was once a political regime, is ultra-conservatism in “customs”, which manifests itself in the form of racism, misogyny, homo and transphobia, and assumes hatred and violence as mediation of relations social.

Culturally, that is, in relation to the modification of the “collective mentality”, the rise of religious fundamentalism, especially Christian, stands out. In addition, it is important to highlight the postmodern movement which, controversial,[iv] brought uncertainty to scientific and philosophical knowledge, conceives values ​​as “liquid”, flexible, and attacks integral conceptions of the world (“metanarratives” – LYOTARD, 1993), validating only particular assertions and, thus, understands that all narratives about the facts have the same status of reliability.

Narrative is a way of describing, judging and interpreting phenomena,[v] and they all gain the same degree of truth from a postmodern perspective. But not every description, judgment and interpretation of a fact is narrative, because it can also be a discourse. Although they are close words in colloquial language, narrative and discourse have important differences.

Table 1 - Comparison between narrative and discourse

Narrative (a “fashionable” word)Speech (word in disuse)
It takes place in literature, particularly in the figure of the narrator.It has a place in science, philosophy, politics, ethics, law...
It resorts to fiction and not to the reality of facts. To narrate is to create with freedom, without limits.Seeks to describe/judge/understand reality by sticking to facts.
Commits to persuade, seduce the interlocutor.It is committed to empirical and/or logical evidence, produced by research, data collected and analyzed.
It appeals to feelings, desires, emotions, conscious or unconscious idiosyncrasies.It appeals to reason, which must be used with rigor and radicalism.
Not every narrative is fake news, but all fake news it is someone's narrative to persuade someone else.It is up to the discourse to demolish fake news and narratives.
Very appropriate to social networks and disseminated in them; easily assumed/believed by common sense.Difficult to be produced/disseminated in social networks and, many times, it is unattainable to common sense.
Source: produced by the author of the article.

Through narratives, scientific denialism, the anti-vaccination movement and the disbelief that the environment is at risk with the boundless advance of capitalist destruction were imposed on social groups around the world. Because of them, in Brazil, many believed that Haddad had distributed a “Gay Kit” to schools and others were convinced and are trying to convince some(but) that the attacks of 08/01/2023, which destroyed the headquarters of the three powers of the Brazilian Republic, were machined by the PT, by Lula and his government.

By the way, regarding the national context, it is important to state that the June 2013 Journeys opened gaps for neoliberalism, which was here, to be articulated with neo-fascism, which emerged from the obscurantist shadows in which it found itself, and both spread and gained strength through narratives via social networks. This resulted in tragic events: impeachment of Dilma without crime; “Bridge to the Future” of the Temer Government and the withdrawal of rights it made,[vi] creation of Lava Jato, which arrested Lula (07/04/2018) and prevented him from running for election, manipulating judicial mechanisms to do so (lawfare); election of Jair Bolsonaro.

Elected, Jair Bolsonaro and the government he constituted consolidated neo-fascism as a mass political force in Brazil. By the way, the motto of the government since the election campaign is “God, homeland and family”, a reproduction ipsis litteris of the fascist motto, translated in Brazil in the first half of the 2022th century by Integralism and retaken by Bolsonarism today (ALMEIDA, 2018). They were competent enough to articulate a bloc of forces that won the 2022 elections and supported the government, which was almost re-elected in XNUMX. This bloc includes, among others: sectors of the urban middle class; rural social groups and those linked to agribusiness; a large part of the State's armed forces; subjects of the legal structure of the State; religious fundamentalists (main/and Pentecostal Christian churches and even conservative Catholic sectors); neo-fascist businessmen; sectors of the “traditional” media.

In the process of neo-fascist destruction, a nucleus emerged that supports Jair Bolsonaro in all circumstances and takes him as a leader (“myth”), behaving like a sect. More for emotion than for reason, this nucleus was mobilized and those who are part of it only listen, read and watch what those internalized in it indicate on social networks. This allows them to break “social and psychological filters” that prevented them from externalizing their hatred towards everything and everyone who is different from them.

Although social networks can be (and are!) used for humanitarian and civilizing purposes, they are governed by an operating logic that attacks humanity and democratic civility, which is doubly interesting to many super rich platform owners: first, because it meets the ideology of some of them, close to neo-fascism (see Elon Musk, owner of Twitter), and second because hate generates more engagement (RATHJE; BAVEL; LINDEN, 2021) and, therefore, more profits.

The dynamics of use and abuse of narratives via social networks makes rational dialogue, based on facts, impossible. This is nothing new because, historically, “democratic listening” with fascists has never been possible. In interpersonal and social relationships, they create tensions with violent communication, identify enemies to be destroyed virtually (“cancellation”) and physically.

Jair Bolsonaro in government, tried to destroy from within the minimum of democratic-bourgeois institutionality that existed in Brazil: he swore in more than eight thousand military personnel, many of whom were enjoying themselves with double salary and “running” from what the Social Security Reform (Constitutional Amendment 103/2019) provided for other social sectors; placed neophytes in strategic positions, including in the Ministry of Health during the pandemic; installed an anti-feminist in the Ministry of Women; appointed a racist to the Palmares Foundation and ignorant in the MEC, uneducated in the Ministry of Culture, convicted of an environmental crime in the Environment. In fact, “When anguish, uncertainty, pain, sadness and frustration occur without the collective support of a shared life, there is a break in human experience, facilitating the capture exercised by hate speeches that defend the destruction of people and institutions” (MACHADO; FONSECA, 2023).

This process of neo-fascists taking over a state the size of Brazil had profound repercussions on the national political-ideological spectrum: the progressives went into reflux, the conservatives were swallowed up by Bolsonarism and the reactionaries (as) to the)[vii] they became a political-ideological force with a significant social base. And that is precisely why Lula's victory in 2022 was gigantic, with international resonance.

It is interesting to note that all this economic, political-ideological, cultural and social “soup”, of which Jair Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism is a product and producer,[viii] it takes effect in guidelines defended vigorously and without any pruritus by the neo-fascists, and they are exactly the opposite of what the school represents in the popular mentality.

Table 2 – Neofascism guidelines in opposition to the image of schools in common sense

GuidelinesWhat does school represent in the popular mentality?
Apology (passionate praise) to weapons.Defense of dialogue as an instrument of persuasion.
Hate and violence as mediation of social relations.Space and time of welcome and care.
Violent communication to promote conflicts and identify enemies to attack/destroy.Dialogue as a pedagogical instrument to solve and overcome conflicts and to balance interpersonal relationships.
Scientific denialism and obscurantism.Place to teach the sciences, philosophy and the arts.
Environmental denialism and attacks on the environment (liberation of mining and pesticides, support for agribusiness monoculture, destruction of inspections…).A place to learn that we are nature and that the world, our planet, is our home and we need to take care of it.
Homophobia and transphobia.Institution that has to respect gender differences.
Racism.Institution that has to respect ethnic-racial differences.
Hate the indigenous people.
Hatred of democracy and apology for authoritarianism.Plural space, of respect for opinions and positions, and of democratic management.
Hatred of women (misogyny)[ix] and defense of machismo.In early childhood education, 96,4% are women; 77,4% in fundamental and 57,8% in secondary education (ARAÚJO, 2022). Men are the majority in higher education: 52,98%.
Apology for the past, for previous ways of life and customs.A place to dream and build the future.
Source: produced by the author of the article.

Thus, in what has been argued so far and in what is exposed in Table 2, there is the validation of the thesis that the attacks against schools were instigated by the culture of hate and violence propagated by neo-fascists via social networks and that schools have been their preferred target. (as) because they represent the negation of everything contained in the guidelines they defend.

“Violence in schools” and “violence against schools”

It doesn't take much intellectual effort to know that schools are not the “bed of roses” idealized by common sense. As violence is a social problem, the school is not immune to it. There is violence of various kinds in schools. The novelty that is experienced with neo-fascism is that “violence against schools” also began to exist, in the form of attacks.

Reality data revealing violence at school is plentiful.

Table 3 – Some data on violence in schools before the neo-fascist attacks

subjectsviolence
StudentsAccording to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), released in 2019 and in which 250 teachers and school leaders from 48 countries or regions were interviewed (HENRIQUE, 2023): – in Brazil, “ there is the most conducive environment for bullying”; – “28% of Brazilian school directors witnessed situations of intimidation or bullying among students, “twice the OECD average”; – “17% have already suffered verbal aggression; 7% physical aggression; 6% discrimination”;
StudentsResearch by Instituto Locomotiva and APEOESP – Union of Official Teaching Teachers of the State of São Paulo (OBSERVATÓRIO DA VIOLÊNCIA, 2020), which heard 701 students and 2019 teachers in the State of São Paulo, between September and October 37: – “2014% of students […] have already suffered some type of violence (in 28 it was 81%)”; – “77% of students reported knowing about episodes of violence in their schools in the last year (2014% in XNUMX)”.
TeachersAccording to the OECD survey (HENRIQUE, 2023): – “[…] Brazil is among the highest rates in the world in the ranking of aggressions against teachers”; – “Weekly, 10% of Brazilian schools record episodes of intimidation or verbal abuse against educators […] the international average is 3%”; – “Verbal aggression: 48%; Bullying: 20%; Bullying: 16%; Discrimination: 15%; Theft/robbery: 8%; Physical aggression: 5%”;
Teachers“The organization Nova Escola […] got in touch with 5.300 teachers from all over the country and recorded that: – 80% said they had already been victims of some type of aggression, mostly verbal violence, followed by psychological violence; – and at least 7% of professionals would have already been physically attacked” (HENRIQUE, 2023);
TeachersAccording to APEOESP (OBSERVATÓRIO DA VIOLÊNCIA, 2020): – “[…] five out of ten teachers in the network (54%) have already suffered some type of violence in the […] schools where they teach – this number was 51% in 2017 and 44% in 2014”; – “bullying ([…] 70% of teachers reported cases in their schools) and discrimination ([…] 54% knew of cases in their schools)”.
Source: produced by the author of the article.

In addition to the violence suffered by school subjects, there is even violence practiced by school institutions against them, which manifests itself in the form of authoritarian pedagogies, undemocratic management, failing to comply with legal precepts (Art. 14 of the LDB - Law 9394 /96 – and Art. 206, Item VI of the Constitution), non-provision of adequate personnel, physical and didactic-pedagogical structure for the proper execution of the teaching-learning process.

If violence in schools was a major problem, it got worse with neo-fascism taking over the Brazilian State via Bolsonarism, because some “violence against schools” was practiced, such as: support for the legalization of homeschooling, which constitutes a denial of school; the implementation of civic-military schools (Decree 10.004 / 19), an initiative by MEC and the Ministry of Defense, which managed to implement 128 schools throughout the national territory (CNTE, 2023) of the 216 planned, institutions focused on the culture of war and authoritarianism.

At the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, many Brazilians were appalled by a new form of “violence against schools”: attacks on school subjects at various levels of education, including day care centers.

Table 4 – Some motivations for violence against schools and the results produced.

Source: produced by the author of the article.

It should be noted that, in the Blumenau attack, an ax was used to murder children in a day care center. Knowing that signs are weapons of propaganda and fascist co-option since the historical origins of this movement, it is worth saying that the ax is one of the symbols of fascism: a hatchet wrapped in a bundle of sticks (beam in Italian and fesce in Latin), referring to what bailiffs in Ancient Rome carried in their hands to execute orders.

In order to have human resources to practice “violence against schools”, neo-fascists employ “[…] various means and methods of co-option, including: use of humor; use of violent aesthetics and language such as the language of malesphere; trolling; use of games online , the Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft; use of attack footage and sharing of shooter manifestos as a method of propaganda; etc." (CARA, 2022, p. 4). There was no record of this type of attack against schools before the year 2000, but from September 2022 to April of this year there were 5 attacks, with 11 fatalities.

Some guidelines for tackling “violence against schools”

Faced with the tragic and unusual “violence against schools”, many naively or seduced by the neo-fascist anti-humanist response, think that it is necessary to use more violence to combat this type of violence. Big mistake! This does not work, as historical experiences such as the US show, precisely the country that Bolsonaro admires and says he wants to copy in Brazil.

The US has “46% of the 857 million firearms in civilian hands worldwide, although they represent only 4% of the world's population […] there are 120,5 registered 'civilian' firearms per 100 inhabitants” (AGENCY EFE, 2018), leads the ranking of firearm violence among developed countries (NORTE, 2016), had, from 01/01 to 27/03/2023, 131 cases of “mass shootings” (4 or more people were killed or injured), an average of 1,5 .2023 cases per day, without the increase in the police force, the installation of security equipment in schools, including the hiring of private security guards (a “zero tolerance” policy after the “Columbine Massacre”), reducing cases of attacks against them (SANCHES, 2022) and that they produced, according to Data collected by the Washington Post until May 554, indicate that in the USA there were: (i) 185 victims in all, 369 dead and 331 injured in violent attacks on schools; (ii) 2021 schools attacked; (iii) 34 was the year with the highest number of events, with 311 incidents; (iv) 2022 school-age children in the US were affected by shootings or exposed to gun violence. (CARA, 4, p. XNUMX).

In fact, “The insertion of security devices in schools, such as turnstiles and armed security guards, will not address the impact of right-wing extremism on young people and, on the contrary, tends to increase threats, as well as create the risk of new attacks” (CARA, 2022, p. 6). In fact, “[…] an attack on the school serves barbarism” (MACHADO; FONSECA, 2023); therefore, one cannot appeal to barbarization when responding to “violence against schools”. Nor blame them, with “[…] questions about what the school did or failed to do” (MACHADO; FONSECA, 2023). What to do, then, with cases of “violence against schools”?

There are important international experiences, such as the case of the “[…] EXIT project, conceived and carried out in Norway since 1997, considered by the UN Human Rights Rapporteurship as one of the most effective and efficient projects aimed at disassociating right-wing extremist groups that foment hatred” (CARA, 2022, p. 8). In addition, and considering that this problem has a multi-causal origin and therefore requires an intersectoral approach, schools and their subjects must be taken care of and neo-fascism in society must be fought.

It is interesting to observe that, with the change of government, with Lula in the Presidency, the confrontation with the problem intensified, producing some meager, but very important results: until 18/04/2023, by action of the Ministry of Justice, more than a thousand cases were investigated potential attacks against schools, 756 profiles removed from social networks for promoting hatred, with 225 people arrested or apprehended, which made the attacks promised by fascists on social networks for 20/04/2023 (Hitler's birth day and of the “Columbine Massacre”, which occurred on 20/04/1999: 2 high school students killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and in the escape they injured 21 more). But further progress is needed.

Table 5 – Proposition of actions to combat “violence against schools”.

subjectsActions to be developed
State (public powers from different spheres of the Union)– monitoring and punishing neo-fascist groups in person and on social media according to the law; – ensure compliance with the legal provisions that guarantee the democratic management of schools; – guarantee structural and didactic-pedagogical conditions so that education professionals can adequately develop teaching-learning processes in accordance with the educational principles and purposes provided for in the Constitution and mirrored in the LDB[xii]; – revoke the legal devices used by Bolsonaro to spread the culture of weapons and violence, such as the release of Shooting Clubs, the regulation of CAC (Collectors, Sport Shooters and Hunters) and the facilitation of access to firearms in the hands of the civilian population; – improve “[…] Law nº 7.716/89 regarding the manufacture, commercialization, distribution and dissemination of symbols, emblems, badges or propaganda of supremacist content that do not necessarily make use of the swastika or swastika cross […] because it is of the nature of right-wing extremist movements and groups the need to use images and symbolic language” and “[….] defining as a qualified crime the conduct of recruiting children and adolescents for Nazi, neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups and communities, as well as the conduct of enticing, authorizing, admitting, allowing children and adolescents to remain in shooting clubs” (CARA, 2022, p. 7); – “[….] better[ar] normative definition of hate crimes” (CARA, 2022, p. 7); – ensure that “[…] national investigation agencies also develop a permanent monitoring and training program for their agents, with exclusive dedication to this type of occurrence” (CARA, 2022, p. 6); – “increase in the penalty for crimes whose motivation or the criteria for choosing the victim present supremacist elements and a generic aggravating factor, of a subsidiary nature, for crimes in general, in which supremacy, misogyny, ableism and racism are identified as motivation of the crime or as a victim selection criterion” (CARA, 2022, p. 7); – producing general guidelines for a national training plan for public and private security agents, ensuring in the curriculum disciplines and activities aimed at promoting a culture of peace and defending fundamental human rights; – receive and forward, in accordance with the law, reports of threats of “violence against schools”.
Society (collectives, movements and social institutions…)– promote a culture of peace, against any culture of hatred and violence developed by neo-fascist groups; – integrate into the dynamics of the life of the schools where they operate; – report threats of “violence against schools” to the competent authorities.
Education Departments (state and municipal)  – create protocols for parents and/or guardians, students, teachers and other education professionals in cases of threats or even to provide guidance during and after “violent” attacks; – create psychological support and social assistance services for parents, students, teachers and other education professionals[xiii]; – promote “[…] training courses to identify changes in young people's behavior” (CARA, 2022, p. 5) for education professionals; – promote, together with “[…] mothers, fathers and guardians […] guidelines for detecting behavioral changes and observing the digital content consumed by children, adolescents and young people.” (CARA, 2022, p. 5); – report threats of “violence against schools” to the competent authorities.
Schools– take initiatives to combat violence against teachers and students previously presented, preferably by establishing local protocols; – promote “democratic management” in the school environment; – promote a culture of peace, combat any manifestation of hatred and violence within the institution, often disguised in the form of bullying, sexism, misogyny, homo and transphobia, racism and discrimination; – to deal with Nazism and Fascism in different critical ways, not only with its final phase (concentration camps), but also with its origins and development; – “A pedagogical work in critical media education and combating misinformation is essential. Critical media education must permeate the various curricular components from the initial grades of Elementary School to High School” (CARA, 2022, p. 6); – integrate with other local protective networks; – report threats of “violence against schools” to the competent bodies.
Parents and/or guardians – be attentive to the children, to observe behaviors, manifestations and desires linked to the culture of hatred and violence; – monitor the use of social networks by children; – monitor the school life of the children; – participate in the dynamics of school life; – report threats of “violence against schools” to the competent authorities.
Source: produced by the author of the article.

By way of conclusion

In conclusion, it is worth returning to ideas presented in this text, with a view to highlighting them. And the first is that the school is not an institution isolated from the context, so that what happens in it is dialectically articulated to the dynamics of the totality of social life.

If that's how it is and if today's society is violent, the school could not be otherwise. However, there are different forms of violence that affect it and its subjects, and the term “violence against schools” in this text is something unprecedented in Brazil. It is, therefore, necessary to make efforts to understand this problem and successfully overcome it, with a view to building a truly democratic Brazilian civility, that is, one not based on fascist precepts, whether historical or adapted to the national context by Bolsonarism.

This process of understanding and finding a solution to the problem of “violence against schools” is underway, but it should be emphasized that it is not possible to take failed international experiences as a paradigm, such as the one in the USA, nor to blame schools and their subjects, placing the blame on them. (as) the burden of solving the problem.

Knowing that the strategy of the neo-fascists is to create the problem (a new type of violence, “violence against schools” via attacks against subjects in the school community) and offer a solution in the form of more violence, aggravation of hatred among students ), teachers and other school education professionals, it is up to non-fascists to take “violence against schools” as a multicausal problem and, thus, adopt the intersectoral approach as a way to overcome it.

For her, all social sectors must undertake the struggle to make the school, as well as Brazilian society, a plural, democratic space that guarantees fundamental human rights to all. For that, there is much to be done, including legislating, although there are already legal devices that need to be put into practice, as is the case of the democratic management of schools.

*Marcos Francisco Martins is a professor at the Faculty of Education at UFScar-Campus Sorocaba.

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VELOSO, Natalia; PIMENTAL, Juliana. Brazil had 5 attacks with deaths in schools in 2022 and 2023. Poder 360, 5.Apr.2023. Available in: https://www.poder360.com.br/brasil/brasil-teve-5-ataques-com-mortes-em-escolas-em-2022-e-2023/#:~:text=Ao%20todo%2C%2052%20pessoas%20foram,no%20somente%20no%20%C3%BAltimo%20ano&text=Ao%20longo%20do%20%C3%BAltimo%20ano,2022%20at%C3%A9%20abril%20de%202023

Notes


[I] The term “neo-fascism” is adopted in this text to characterize the movement led by Bolsonaro. This is because it is understood that “historical fascism” (BOBBIO; MATTEUCCI; PASQUINO; 1992, p. 466) has undergone considerable adaptations under the Bolsonarist aegis, such as “indulgence”: fascism was nationalist, to the point of causing wars between nations , but Bolsonaro and his government submitted to imperialism and handed over the national heritage.

[ii] It should be noted that the consolidation of the capitalist mode of production, surpassing the feudal one, was the result of three major movements, among others of lesser importance: the alteration of the medieval mentality by the Enlightenment (1640th and 1688th centuries); the transformation of the political dynamics by the revolutions in England (1776 to 1789), in the USA (XNUMX) and, mainly, in France (XNUMX); the economic and social change produced by the Industrial Revolution (XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries).

[iii] The High School Reform, initially presented authoritatively as a Provisional Measure (746/2016) and later transformed into Law (13.415/2017), is a finished example of a neoliberal educational public policy, hence the non-neoliberals understand that it is not reform it, but revoke it.

[iv] It is difficult to identify post-modernity, because it is an intellectual, philosophical, scientific, artistic movement... multivocal, having within it even a “post-modernity” of liberation, according to Freitas (2005). In this article, we are working with what we believe to be the most striking characteristics of this movement, such as those mentioned above.

[v] In this text, the word narrative is conceived with the meaning and sense employed by common sense and with the reach it has gained in the speech of people of various cultural levels in Brazil today, and not in the way it is appropriated by the human and social sciences. In them, narratives are sometimes conceived as a technique/instrument/data collection process about a phenomenon in various fields of knowledge, such as research in education, for example (PRADO et al; 2015).

[vi] Just to mention three examples: “Expenditure ceiling” (Constitutional Amendment 95/2016); Labor reform (Law No. 13.467/2017); High School Reform (Law No. 13.415/2017).

[vii] To learn about the concept of progressive, conservative and reactionary that is being used here, see Martins (2022). Regarding the last of these groups, which is the one at issue in this text, it should be added that “These groups, points out Junqueira (2018), seek to promote a morally regressive political agenda, especially (but not only) oriented to contain or nullify advances and transformations in relation to gender, sex and sexuality, in addition to reaffirming traditionalist dispositions, dogmatic doctrinal points and 'non-negotiable' religious principles” (CARA, 2022, p. 3).

[viii] Evidences of this are the liberation of the Shooting Clubs, which have even received children for training courses (ESTEVES, 2023); the regulation of CAC (Collectors, Sport Shooters and Hunters); 1.354.751 new weapons entered into circulation (OLIVEIRA, 2023) between 2019 and 2022 (weapons in the hands of the civilian population exceed by 7,5 times the total number of weapons linked to state public security forces). “The number of weapons in the hands of the civilian population today exceeds by 7,5 times the total number of weapons linked to state public security forces. The growth in the registration of firearms has been accompanied by an increase in the quantity of ammunition sold on the domestic market. These numbers represent the result of the policy of arming the civilian population adopted by the Bolsonaro Government, following the example of Decree No. 9.847/2019.” (CARA, 2022, p. 6)

[ix] “[…] misogyny plays a crucial role in the process [of attacks against schools]. No wonder women are frequent targets of mass shooters.” (CARA, 2022, p. 4)

[X] Young people and adolescents, in the process of moral maturation, need to feel part of a group to strengthen themselves, which occurs in virtual neo-fascist collectives, based on hatred of the same things and people. Integrated into such groups, they feel recognized by the common identity.

[xi] “It is necessary to understand that the process of co-option by the extreme right takes place through virtual interactions, in which adolescents or young people are frequently exposed to extremist content disseminated in messaging applications, games, discussion forums and social networks.” (CARA, 2022, p. 3)

[xii] “On the Principles and Purposes of National Education – Art. 2 Education, a duty of the family and the State, inspired by the principles of freedom and the ideals of human solidarity, aims at the full development of the student, his preparation for the exercise of citizenship and his qualification for work.”

[xiii] “Authors define that, after an attack at school, an assessment should be made to determine which students will most need support (more intense and longitudinal) and which will be the universal supports (psychosocial) that should be directed to the entire community school.” (CARA, 2022, p. 5)


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