Lack of policies to improve togetherness and the deteriorating educational infrastructure contribute to a rise in aggression at institutions across the country
Valentina Fraiz
Brazil is dealing with a wave of violence at educational institutions, marked by an increase in cases at schools over the last 10 years and a rise in attacks at educational institutions, which peaked between 2022 and 2023. The devaluation of the profession of teaching in the collective consciousness, the normalization of hate speech, and the lack of preparation by education departments when it comes to dealing with conflicts sparked by racism and misogyny are some of the hypotheses for this complex and multicausal phenomenon, which has resulted in at least 47 deaths since 2001.
Brazil’s Ministry of Education (MEC) recognizes four types of violence that affect the school community. The first is extreme violence, involving premeditated, deadly attacks; the second encompasses situations of interpersonal violence, involving hostility and discrimination between students and teachers, as well as bullying, including physical, verbal, or psychological intimidation. The third is institutional violence, which refers to exclusionary practices by schools, such as when teaching materials used in the classroom do not consider issues of race and gender diversity. Finally, the MEC identifies problems that affect the institution’s surroundings, such as drug dealing, shootings, and robberies.
According to the country’s Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC), 3,700 victims of interpersonal violence were registered in schools in 2013, a figure that rose to 13,100 in 2023 (see graph). The numbers include students, teachers, and other members of the school community. Of these cases, 2,200 involved self-inflicted violence (i.e., self-harm, self-punishment, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicides), a type of violence that increased 95-fold in the period evaluated.
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The 2024 Violence Atlas, developed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) using data from the Information System for Notifiable Illnesses and Injuries (SINAN), the Ministry of Health, and the National School Health Survey (PeNSE), indicates that the number of students being bullied has increased. In 2009, the percentage of students in Brazilian schools who reported having been victims of bullying was 30.9%, a number that rose to 40.5% in 2019. “What’s more, the proportion of elementary school students who stopped going to school that year because they felt unsafe was 11.4%, more than double the 5.4% recorded in 2009,” reports economist Daniel Cerqueira of the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), which carried out the study in partnership with the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP).
Cerqueira believes that the increase shown in official statistics can be partly explained by improvements to SINAN, which computes information on diseases and injuries, including victims of fatal and nonfatal attacks at schools who arrive at public and private hospitals. “However, improvements in data collection do not explain such sharp rises,” notes the economist. He highlights the political radicalization process that began in the country in 2013 as something that has affected the way people treat each other. According to Cerqueira, statements made by public figures downplaying violence have helped create an environment in which aggressive and intolerant discourse is normal, which may have negatively affected the atmosphere in schools. Another aspect highlighted by the researcher is the increase in domestic violence against children and teenagers. According to the 2024 Violence Atlas, in 2009, 9.5% of elementary school students in Brazilian state capitals reported having been assaulted by a family member in the last 30 days—this percentage had risen to 16.1% by 2019. “The violence and neglect suffered at home impacts the school environment. Aggression functions as a form of defense and reaffirmation, albeit inverted, of the young person’s self-esteem,” explains the researcher.
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Angela Soligo, a psychologist from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), points to the devaluation of teaching as a profession, the discontinuation of educational policies, and the poor quality of school infrastructure as other contributors to the rise in school violence. Soligo led a national study on violence and discrimination in schools, carried out in partnership with federal universities from across the country and published in 2018. The researchers identified institutional prejudices in curricula, teaching materials, and pedagogical relationships as factors that can exacerbate the situation. According to Soligo, federal laws 10,639 of 2003 and 11,645 of 2008, which require schools to teach the history of African and Indigenous peoples, are often not followed. “The misrepresentation of certain social groups in teaching materials ends up perpetuating prejudice,” she says. To make things worse, students who experience racism, sexism, or homophobia are not always well supported by school management.
On the lack of visibility of negative experiences among students, psychologist João Galvão Bacchetto of the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (INEP) carried out an analysis by sending questionnaires to school principals in the Basic Education Assessment System (SAEB). The survey received 63,000 responses. One of the most striking findings was the high number of schools that claim not to experience any type of violence: 40% of respondents stated they had not recorded any incidents. Another 20% reported only occasional episodes of low severity. Bacchetto believes the data reveals a mismatch between student suffering and recognition of the problem by school management. “Violence is also a matter of perception. Many schools do not know how to recognize it,” he says.
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Telma Vinha, a pedagogue at UNICAMP, agrees that this is one of the elements that negatively affects the institutional climate, a concept that describes the collective perceptions and expectations of the school community, resulting from the shared experiences of its members. She points out that in some schools, 100% of the leadership says that there are few disagreements between students in the final years of elementary school, while more than half of the students say that there are many conflicts between them. “Children rarely tell adults about their troubles. It is therefore essential to listen to them on these issues,” says the researcher. Vinha is currently leading a study on the topic as part of the Group for Ethics, Diversity, and Democracy in Public Schools at UNICAMP’s Institute of Advanced Studies and the Moral Education Research and Study Group (GEPEM), which also includes specialists from São Paulo State University (UNESP).
Being too liberal with the concept of bullying is another problem, according to Soligo. “Classifying racism and misogyny as bullying ends up obscuring the reason behind the aggression, making it difficult to formulate an effective response,” she explains. Soligo says schools often seek to resolve conflicts labeled as bullying through mediated conversations between the aggressor and the victim. “Mediation helps to resolve specific disagreements, but if no effort is made to discuss racism and misogyny, for example, the problem behavior is simply repeated with other students in the future,” warns the psychologist.
Valentina Fraiz
For UNESP pedagogue Luciene Regina Paulino Tognetta, confronting discrimination in the school environment requires more than reactionary projects—a structural transformation is needed. Having researched the subject of school violence since 2006, Tognetta is currently involved in partnerships with the municipal education departments of Vitória (Espirito Santo) and São Paulo, seeking ways to improve interpersonal relationships. “We have found that having an antiracism policy is not enough if you do not also rethink the school’s entire organizational structure,” she emphasizes. This means, for example, that the institution should have Black professionals on its management team if it wishes to be capable of properly supporting victims of racism. “This is something that requires empathy and cannot be done by White people alone,” continues Tognetta.
She believes that one of the flaws of private schools is their resistance to contact child protective services in serious situations out of fear of the families’ reaction and negative press. “This is an essential resource in cases of negligence. If a student repeatedly displays behavior of bullying a classmate, they need psychological support. If the parents do not provide this support, child protective services must be contacted,” argues the researcher. Psychologist José Leon Crochíck of the University of São Paulo (USP) stresses that holding the aggressor accountable must be considered carefully. Punishment may involve suspension or expulsion, depending on the student’s record. In serious cases, the parents of the victim commonly ask for the aggressors to be expelled. However, Crochíck warns that this is not always the best response. “School serves a social purpose. Expelling a student can make them more aggressive and can stigmatize them, making their social life difficult,” he explains.
With the aim of investigating how bullying and discrimination manifest themselves in the school environment, Crochíck led research funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) that involved 12 other Brazilian universities and institutions in Argentina, Spain, Mexico, and Portugal. Conducted between 2018 and 2021, the study looked at some 3,000 students from 89 public and private elementary and high schools in the participating countries. The results indicate that students who perform well academically are rarely victims or perpetrators of bullying, while those who struggle in the classroom but excel in competitive physical activities may be among the bullies. “Bullying is linked to hierarchical relationships based on the use of force and submission of the weakest,” explains Crochíck. With part of a research grant from FAPESP’s Public Education Program, the researcher is currently working on actions designed to combat discrimination and bullying in three public schools in São Paulo.
Classifying racism and misogyny as bullying masks the reason behind the attacks
Marian Ávila de Lima e Dias, a psychologist from UNIFESP who co-led the study, explains that the victims are usually “invisible students,” meaning they are neither among the best nor the worst in the class and are rarely chosen for collective activities. “The average student, who does not stand out in terms of academics or sociability, is more likely to be the target of aggression,” points out the researcher, who is studying violence in schools in Guarulhos, São Paulo, with funding from FAPESP. Another statistic identified by the study reveals a correlation between aggressors and victims: of every 10 students who suffer bullying, three go on to become bullies in the future. “But the opposite also occurs: three of every 10 aggressors end up as victims themselves,” highlights Dias. The research also found that prejudiced attitudes are often related to what the aggressors perceive as weaknesses. “Because of this, marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, are often the targets of this type of aggression,” says the psychologist.
Violence in the school environment is also manifesting in less visible ways, according to Tognetta. By analyzing data from the São Paulo State Department of Education (SEDUC-SP), she determined that between 2019 and 2023, the number of cases related to psychological suffering among students in the state school system jumped from 117 to 3,100. In the same period, suicide by students increased from 7 to 67, while attempts rose from 9 to 325. “The central issue is not just that violence is exploding in schools, but that violence is imploding in individuals, leading teenagers to social isolation and encouraging them to seek out extremist groups online. If school does not welcome them, someone else will,” she warns. Tognetta points out that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively affected many students’ mental health, are still being felt to this day.
Valentina Fraiz
To understand how state and municipal education departments deal with violence in schools, sociologist Flávia Pereira Xavier of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) led a national survey of managers from education departments in 14 states and 182 municipalities. The study, funded by the Lemann Center, was designed to ensure regional representation and took into account different levels of the Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM). The researchers looked at five ways the departments manage school climate, atmosphere, and violence. The first related to how school principals report problems to their local education secretary and whether the secretary takes an active role in the dialogue. The second assessed whether education departments make efforts to improve the school climate, including through measures for conflict prevention and management, social and emotional development, psychosocial support, and ongoing training on bullying. The third examined the guidelines and resources provided by the departments to improve the school climate, considering guidance from institutional documents, the existence of a sector responsible for oversight, and funding given to schools. The fourth looked at the perception of principals regarding partnerships between education departments and institutions of the judiciary, social assistance centers, and health agencies. The fifth was whether the department recommends the inclusion of topics such as inequality and discrimination in school documents and training.
“We found that only 4.1% of the surveyed education departments have a robust structure to deal with school violence through coordinated actions in all five of the dimensions analyzed and partnerships with agencies such as the public prosecutor’s office and specialist social assistance centers [CREAS],” warns the sociologist. According to the study, most departments have some form of program to address school violence, but there is no integrated approach. “The survey reinforced the need to strengthen the link between education, health, and social assistance, in addition to ensuring that initiatives designed to improve the school climate are continuous and interconnected with public security and justice policies,” concludes the researcher.
The story above was published with the title “Aggression in education” in issue in issue 350 of april/2025.
Projects 1. Tackling bullying and discrimination in public schools (nº 19/13579-3); Grant Mechanism Public Education Program; Principal Investigator José Leon Crochíck (USP); Investment R$433,869.30. 2. Tackling bullying and discrimination in public schools in Guarulhos (nº 22/06831-0) Grant Mechanism Public Education Program; Principal Investigator Marian Ávila de Lima e Dias (UNIFESP); Investment R$86,745.40.
Report XAVIER, F. P. (Coord). Gestão das redes de ensino e clima escolar: Mapeamento das ações e uma proposta de matriz avaliativa sensível à equidade. Centro Lemann, Nupede, UFMG, 2024.
Books CROCHÍCK, J. L. e CROCHÍCK, N. Bullying, preconceito e desempenho escolar: Uma nova perspectiva. São Paulo: Benjamin Editorial, 2017. ZUIN, A. S. Fúria narcísica entre alunos e professores: As práticas de cyberbullying e os tabus presentes na profissão de ensinar. São Carlos: Edufscar, 2021.
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