The educational community of CEIP San José Obreroin the Macarena district of Seville, has expressed its rejection of the appointment of a member of Vox as a representative of the City Council on its school council, considering that her appointment is incompatible with the idiosyncrasy of a school in which more than 60% of the students come from families of immigrant origin of more than 30 different nationalities.
The figure of the representative of the City Council on the school council has the function of serving as a link between the center and the local administration, communicating the needs and demands referred to by the school. Without questioning “the capabilities or attitudes of the proposed person,” the AMPA argues that “the election of a person from the Vox municipal group is not appropriate to fulfill the functions expected of a representative of the City Council in a school with a high percentage of immigrant families and Muslim students.”
The center, which serves some 412 students, is located in an environment of “special social vulnerability”, halfway between the Polígono Norte next to the shanty settlement of El Vacie, and the Cerezo neighborhood, “one of the traditional migration hotspots.” in Seville, capital,” explains Elisabet Padial, president of the AMPA of this Sevillian school. Among the migrant population, “especially the Moroccan and Muslim” stands out, since just 100 meters from the center is the Al-Hidaya Mosque in the Macarena neighborhood.
Vox systematically links immigration with crime in its campaigns and political speeches. In the 2019 electoral campaign, the Macarena district itself was the scene of a call by the far-right party against a center for unaccompanied migrant minors, where its leaders appealed to the duty to “protect” the “ordinary Spaniard to walk calmly.” without being assaulted by a herd of menas.”
For this reason, Miguel Rosa, who has been director of the San José Obrero school for 18 years, describes it as “nonsense” that a member of Abascal’s party is the municipal spokesperson on his school council this year. “It hurts because it is a party that tries to reduce aid for migrants and that is directly in conflict with the philosophy of the school,” explains the person who directed the center from 2002 to 2020 and collected various awards for their integration work and for “responding to the needs of foreign families who demanded a welcoming school for their children, in addition to a welcoming city.”
It was Vox that chose the center
The association of mothers and fathers of this school bases its opposition precisely on the political proposals of the extreme right party and on the measures that it has promoted from the institutions in which they have political weight, such as in Burgos, where they have promoted the withdrawal of the aid to NGOs that welcome and assist migrants. Also in Andalusia, during the first term of the PP Government together with Ciudadanos, Vox conditioned its support to the budgets in exchange for an item to “reinforce security in centers for unaccompanied foreign minors”, although the crime rate associated with migrant minors under guardianship in Andalusia was then 0.54%.
After having “carefully read the 70 pages of its political program,” the AMPA president focuses on “Vox’s crusade to increasingly cut back on the rights of immigrant minors.” This was stated on behalf of the school in the last session of the municipal district board to which it belongs, and in which the list of City Council representatives on the school councils of the neighborhood schools had to be ratified.
After discussing it with the management team, the families of San José Obrero voted against and expressed the “unanimous rejection” of the educational community of this school, urging the municipal representatives to reconsider the assignment, since they understand that it is the only training that in its ideology “it violates the rights of our students”, whose main characteristic is its multiculturalism.
Sources from the Municipal Delegation of Education consulted by this newspaper explain that the assignment procedure is carried out following an order based on the votes obtained by each political party in that district and, once assigned, it is no longer possible to make the requested change. “A list was sent to all districts with the schools to be designated, and Vox, when its turn came, chose that one,” they report from Education.
The Vox municipal group, for its part, regrets the AMPA’s misgivings about its party, stating that it is “absolutely uninformed about the principles and values that Vox defends.” Sources from the ultra-conservative formation in Seville add that they are only “against illegal immigration” and “the rest are just shambles that hang us”, while at the same time they claim to be “a democratic and patriotic party” that defends public education, and They are “delighted” to assist families to “clear up any doubts” that may arise regarding their program.
A match at the antipodes of the center
Given the context in which the school is framed, the families understand that the ideology of Abascal’s training is at the opposite end of his school project and they fear that this appointment could generate a source of conflict in a school that promotes education. of interculturality and that carries in its DNA the values of coexistence. “We don’t want that to be fragmented,” expresses the president of the AMPA, conveying the concern of the entire educational community.
According to the AMPA, Vox “proposes to prevent immigrants who are in the process of regulation from registering in the municipal registry and accessing rights such as education”, a situation in which a good part of the families that make up the group find themselves. AMPA. Furthermore, they emphasize that it is “a political party that puts the supremacy of the Spanish national identity at the center of its proposals, while our educational center is characterized by promoting a multicultural, cosmopolitan and ecumenical identity, in which students coexist. of different nationalities and religions without conflicts.”
Beyond the shock over the issue of migration, the families find incompatibility in the fact that those from Abascal, in their pursuit of what they call “indoctrination” in the classrooms, try to eradicate “affective-sexual talks” from the school. and education in sexual diversity so that children have references from other families.” “For us that is fundamental,” says Elisabet Pidal, alluding to the fact that many children “come from societies with very traditional cultures” and through school “they come closer to more plural realities.”
The needs of the center
The demands of this school transcend the usual cleaning or maintenance problems in educational centers in Seville and “have a lot to do with the well-being of the students,” according to Pidal. “The basic needs of the students at home, in their neighborhood, have to be covered because that is the basis for students to truly develop,” defends the representative of the school’s mothers and fathers, recalling that “many children come to center with the stress transmitted by their families, who live with the ax of eviction on them.”
Hence, one of the main demands of the CEIP San José Obrero is to provide “comprehensive care to families from the center itself.” A purpose that they are achieving thanks to the involvement of various social organizations. “That is why we oppose Vox representing us,” given its battle against “aid to social entities for the defense of human rights, equality, ecology and education for development, which are essential for them to be carried out.” the more than 20 projects that are developed in our center by NGOs and associations.”
For all these reasons, the AMPA argues that “we cannot trust that Vox will represent us because it is at the opposite end of our needs.” And he insists that it is not a question of ideology, since different political ideologies also coexist at its center, but rather “we are talking about a question of program”, which leads them to question whether “someone from said party fulfills the mission of transferring the City Council the needs of our educational center.”
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