Civic-Military School Confiscates Students' LGBTI+ Flags

Civic-Military School Confiscates Students' LGBTI+ Flags
Brett Sayles/Pexels

09-03-2022

Sofia Dolabela

America and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

A monitor at the Presidente Castello Branco Municipal Civic Military School in Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil, warned three teenagers for carrying the LGBTQ+ flag inside the school environment. The episode caused outrage among parents and students, who protested in front of the school. The situation began when one of the 8th-grade students decided to carry small rainbow flags to distribute to friends. According to one of the mothers of the teenagers in the group, one of the monitors, who are in the military, confiscated the material. Besides, she informed a local newspaper that the student's request to hold a Diversity Week was immediately denied. 

The school justified the warning based on the Joinville Municipal School System's Unified School Rules, which state that "campaign materials" can only be distributed with the school's prior approval. However, the LGBTQ+ flag is not campaign material, but rather a symbol of the fight for rights. 

The Presidente Castello Branco School honors in its name the first president-general of the Brazilian military dictatorship and is one of the educational institutions that became civic-military as part of the National Program of Civic-Military Schools (Pecim), promoted by the federal government. The program consists of the transfer of the management of public schools to the military and was announced in July 2019 in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Ministry of Defense.

Sources and further reading:

Nexo. (2022, March 05).Civic-military school confiscates students' LGBTI+ flags. Nexo. Retrieved March, 09,  2022, from https://www.nexojornal.com.br/extra/2022/03/05/Escola-c%C3%ADvico-militar-confisca-bandeira-LGBTI-de-alunos