A rise in attacks on schools has left Brazil reeling — and searching for solutions
When the hatchet-wielding intruder's weapon tumbled from his hand onto the school floor, a 15-year-old student decided to take a chance. She confronted him, hoping others could escape out a nearby open door, and used her knowledge of jiu-jitsu — learned in free classes at a neighborhood park — to keep him from taking her down.
When he realized the others were fleeing, he stooped to pick up the hatchet and ran after them, as a second intruder armed with a gun made his way through the school. Ten lives were taken that day: five students, two school employees, an uncle of one of the attackers who owned a business nearby and the attackers themselves, who took their own lives.
This scene is not from the U.S., where this year alone 74 people have been killed or injured by guns in American schools. It's from Brazil, where on March 13, 2019, two former students attacked Raul Brasil State School in Suzano, a town in the state of São Paulo, in one of the deadliest school attacks in the country's history.
The Latin American nation had previously seen a relatively low number of attacks on schools — nowhere near as many as in the U.S. But a sharp increase in the past year has prompted national debate. In the eight months since August, there have been nine attacks. In the 20 years before that there were 13.
These 22 attacks on 23 schools (in one case the same perpetrator attacked two schools on the same day) have certain commonalities. All were carried out by students or former students. The attackers were white, male and ranged in age from 10 to 25. Nine of these attacks happened in the last eight months, including one on March 27 at a São Paulo elementary school where a 13-year-old student killed a teacher with a knife. An additional attack this week, by an axe-wielding man on a daycare center, was an outlier in that he appeared to have no connection to the school where he killed four children.
The nation is currently trying to determine why there's been an increase in school violence — and what can be done to prevent future tragedies. But for some, it's not enough. Rhyllary Barbosa de Sousa, the 15-year-old jiu-jitsu trained survivor, gives voice to what many Americans say:
"People are sad, they're shocked, they want to remember the victims, the people who died," she says. "But then the moment passes and they forget. They look away. They don't think about the possibility that this could happen again. Because when it happens once, it's shocking. When it happens a second time, it's still a shock. Once it happens a third, a fourth time, it already becomes normal. People say, 'Ah I knew it was going to happen again.' But it's not OK. It's a massacre. We're talking about lives. People are dying for nothing. They're being killed in a place that's supposed to be safe. But it isn't."
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