Providencia Mayor Jaime Bellolio testified before the Chamber of Deputies' Education Committee that one of the students detained this Monday at Liceo José Victorino Lastarría confessed to receiving payment to participate in the recent incidents.
The events took and took place inside the historic school, where a group of individuals wearing white overalls attempted to carry out acts of vandalism. During the altercation, students and staff managed to detain the individuals before they could execute their plans.
“They had materials to start fires and, once they hooded themselves, it was the students themselves who held them back,” Bellolio recounted. The mayor also praised the quick actions of a school staff member.
The mayor noted that two minors, aged 13 and 15, were taken into custody. In light of this, he emphasized the need to investigate the financial motives behind the protest: “One of them stated that he had been paid to do this.”
The 'musical chairs' phenomenon in historic schools
Bellolio denounced a cycle of expulsions that fails to address the underlying issue. According to the mayor, students expelled for extreme violence are organizing themselves to apply to other schools as a group.
“Students are expelled from schools for extreme violence, and what they do is group together to apply to another school en masse to do exactly the same thing,” the mayor stated. He characterized this practice as a way of hijacking educational communities.
During the same session, Carla Chandía, director of Colegio Nuevos Horizontes, backed the urgent need for the “Protected Schools” bill. Chandía, whose school was targeted in a shooting last year, called for greater authority to intervene in high-risk situations.
“We need laws that can help us have a bit more autonomy to resolve issues within the school,” the director noted. She criticized the lack of tools to conduct backpack searches without a police presence.
Chandía also supported the removal of free tuition benefits for those who incite chaos. “Too much has happened here where acts have no consequences and nothing happens. Nothing happens to the student who creates chaos within an institution,” she concluded.