Coexistence under control?
From Àgora de Treball Social de Lleida, we observe with concern the recent debate about the incorporation of police into secondary schools. As professionals who work with adolescents, families, and vulnerable situations, we believe that this debate deserves deeper reflection.
Conflicts in schools exist, and denying this would be simplifying a reality that many educational teams experience with exhaustion. Classrooms are home to tensions, emotional distress, aggression, increasingly explicit sexist or racist discourses, and complex family situations. Precariousness, polarization, mental health issues, and digital violence enter schools every morning and affect coexistence.
Precisely for this reason, this debate deserves deeper reflection. The question is not whether conflicts exist—because they do—but from what perspective we choose to address them. When police are expected to provide authority or limits within schools, perhaps we should also ask ourselves if a certain narrative about the underlying problem is being assumed.
The police presence in educational centers is neither neutral nor symbolically innocent. It is not about questioning the preventive or coordination work of the police, nor about denying situations that require intervention. But it is about asking ourselves what message we transmit to adolescents when the visible response to conflict is primarily one of control.
Because institutions also educate. When certain tensions are addressed primarily through surveillance, we send messages about what we consider a problem, who is perceived as conflictual, and which adolescents are viewed with more suspicion. It is no coincidence that this debate emerges particularly in high-complexity centers. Talking about coexistence in schools also requires looking at educational segregation and the social inequalities that characterize certain territories.
For years, schools have been working with strained teams and insufficient resources to sustain increasingly complex situations. Professionals in education, social work, and mental health have long been warning about the same thing: there is a lack of mediation spaces, educational guidance, family support, community work, and time—real time—to detect discomforts, build connections, and intervene before conflict erupts.
It is also necessary to strengthen existing interdisciplinary teams, such as the Psychopedagogical Assessment Teams (EAP), which also include social work professionals, and to coordinate them with strong Basic Social Services close to the community. But we also need projects that reconnect adolescents with the community, generate a sense of belonging and social commitment in an era increasingly colonized by screens.
It is also essential to recognize the role of families as primary educators and the importance of their participation in educational centers as part of this co-responsibility. However, this appeal cannot be made from a place of blaming. Many families manage daily life amidst precariousness, housing problems, unstable jobs, language barriers, or emotional distress. Demanding co-responsibility without strengthening support can end up being unfair. Strengthening coexistence also implies strengthening the supports and conditions that allow for education.
Because coexistence is not the same as control. In school, we are not just playing for academic results: we are playing for what society we want to build and from what values we decide to do so.