Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Fall 2013
I. Identifying the problem and statistics
Bullying is an issue that concerns us all and it is defined as “an unwanted aggressive behavior
that implies a misbalance in real or perceived power”. This behavior is against the Section 5 of Article
II of our Constitution: “Every person has the right to an education which promotes the full
development of personality and strengthens respect towards human rights and fundamental liberties.”1
Parenting Resources LLC conducted a study titled Bullying in Puerto Rico: A Descriptive
Study with a sample of 10,229 students ranging from 3rd grade to 12th grade. Since the students were
from public and private schools from all over the island, including the municipalities of Vieques and
Culebra, the samples were very diverse. The study concluded that 13% of the students surveyed had
been victims of bullying two or more times during the 2013 school year. Also, 6% of the surveyed
students admitted that they had bullied other students during that period. According to the results,
20% of the students being bullied are in elementary school while 11% of them are from middle school
and 8% are in high school. Another alarming fact is that 35% of students reported that teachers do not
deal adequately with bullying cases in their schools and that there is no protocol for teachers to follow
in these situations.2
The Puerto Rico Stop Bullying Association conducted another study in 2010 in order to find
the causes and incidences of this behavior in various schools of the island. 716 students in middle
school were surveyed and 60% of them perceived the usage of mocks to be the most common form of
bullying in school. 40% of them said that insults and threats were the most common way of bullying.
The study concluded that bullying did not affect too much the physical of the individual but that the
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States carried out a study and found out that
LGBTTQI students have a higher risk of being bullied at school in comparison with other students
based on the aggressive attitudes and negative perceptions towards this community. 4
The results of the studies mentioned demonstrate that it is fundamental to have capacitated
teachers who can provide the necessary conditions and promote a broad, tolerant and inclusive gender
perspective in public and private schools. Children need to be educated as responsible citizens that
respect one another regardless of gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation. The capacitation
of teachers and other professionals in public schools will facilitate educational dynamics to promote
gender equality and tolerance towards different sexualities and will establish the basis for effective
protocols on how to handle discriminatory, intolerant and violent actions inside the classroom.
II. Current initiatives to address the issue and the Schools of San Juan’s pilot project
Recently a bill was passed (P.S. 238) that protects people from discrimination due to perceived
or real gender identity and/or sexual orientation in all public agencies in Puerto Rico. This bill includes
the Department of Education as well.5 This is a great advancement in the struggle for equality and
inclusiveness but there is still a lot of work to be done in order to eliminate LGBTTQI-phobia and
Ramón Luis Cruz Burgos and co-sponsored by eight legislators. This bill, if passed, would establish
new public policy to intervene with bullying by creating a protocol for prevention, discipline and
schools to address bullying. The bill establishes the institutional responsibilities and obligations that
three important agencies (public schools, Department of Education and the Division of Community
Public schools:
● Develop a protocol that includes prevention and intervention procedures. This protocol
will also include disciplinary sanctions and follow up assessment of bullying cases that will
vary in each school depending on their respective realities and necessities.
● Educate teachers, professionals, parents and guardians about bullying through educational
workshops.
● Create support services for the bullied student, the bully and any other person affected by
the situation.
● Create a committee composed of members from the school that will serve as intermediaries
in cases of bullying.
● Inform about the institutional policies against bullying adopted by each school.
● Coordinate a network of support services to implement this public policy that will include
governmental agencies, organizations and/or private corporations.
Department of Education:
● Must monitor that public schools comply with all the responsibilities that the bill
establishes.
● Investigate and publish information about bullying in Puerto Rico, its modalities, types and
consequences.
● Create statistics about the bill’s implementation process.
● Corroborate that teachers and professionals comply with the requisite of taking bullying
prevention workshops.
Puerto Rico Police Department – Prevention and Community Education Division:
● Educate and make aware teachers, professionals, parents and/or guardians about this public
policy, its sanctions and disciplinary measures that the bill establishes.
Even though this bill promotes education that will encourage inclusiveness, tolerance and
1. It does not make bullying due to gender and/or sexual orientation visible
Although the bill does include that it will protect everyone from bullying due to gender and/or
sexual orientation it does not establishes a protocol or specific parameters to follow for these cases.
Article 8 of P.C. 1424 establishes that the Puerto Rico Police Department will be in charge of
implementing educational workshops targeted at students, teachers and other school professionals.
The Police Department should not be the designated agency used for these purposes for a wide
array of reasons.
First of all, including the Police infers a criminalization process that is not consistent with
the nature of this bill. The bill promotes a non-punitive approach to bullying.
Also, Article 8 does not clarify the curriculum or protocol that the Police Department will
use to implement the educational workshops. Furthermore, we do not know the preparation or
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2012 for violations of civil liberties, human rights and
violence towards citizens. ACLU published a report that made everyone aware that the Police
Department had incurred in an excessive use of force, severely limited citizens’ freedom of speech
3. The bill does not include nonprofits or community organizations that deal with the
topics and issues the bill wants to address.
The bill does not contemplate in any manner the inclusion of the third sector, that is,
organizations that directly deal with the issue and have experience in a wide array of topics
regarding bullying. These organizations include the Matria Proyect, Taller Salud, the Women and
These nonprofits and educational programs are valuable resources that can contribute and
develop better protocols and workshops. Moreover, they all have experience with topics such as
domestic violence, gender perspective and the LGBTTIQ community which is at a higher risk
4. The bill does not require workshops or curriculums with gender perspective
It is very alarming that the bill does not contemplate gender perspective at all. Without a gender
perspective, domestic violence cases, LGBT bullying cases and hate crimes will keep occurring.
Another interesting initiative is being developed in San Juan. The municipality of San Juan
through the Institute of Gender and Advanced Education (“Matria Proyect”) is offering workshops on
gender perspective to teachers from the Schools of San Juan. Although this is a pilot project it is a
very relevant initiative and its curriculum includes exercises similar to the ones we propose. This pilot
project could later be implemented in public schools at other municipalities as well. We have reached
out to the Matria Proyect and to the professionals at the Program of Women and Gender Studies
(University of Puerto Rico) and they have been very willing to cooperate with us to implement this
III. Recommendations
A. Our initiative
The bill that we propose entails that the Department of Education provides the necessary
funds and resources so that teachers from the public system obtain a Certificate of Advanced Education
on gender perspective and violence prevention on the basis of gender, gender identity and/or sexual
orientation. This bill would impose an obligation on the Department of Education so that it can
reaffirm and reactivate its public policy related to gender equality and domestic violence prevention.
The Department of Education will design an educational program for teachers that will
contemplate no less than twenty (20) contact hours of advanced education including the following
topics: gender perspective with a focus on the different roles, identities and social constructs. These
workshops will be taught from an inclusive and pluralist perspective in order to prevent all types of
violence: gender violence and discrimination based on real or perceived gender identity and/or sexual
orientation.
These classes will include alternatives and an effective protocol to handle all types of
violence inside the classroom and will promote the study and questioning of those functions that are
culturally imposed and which exclude and degrade women in comparison to men. They will also
encourage that the material discussed in class presents both men and women exercising all types of
professions and practicing equality and respect. These courses will also promote inclusive language
and will make even more visible women’s contributions to our country. Apart from this, these courses
will also encourage equal access to both girls and boys to classes and activities which are traditionally
B. Action Steps:
The goals of these exercises are to recognize the importance of gender equality in daily life
at a personal and social level8. Teachers can recognize their own perceptions, images and stereotypes
of gender9.
a) Gender Roles
Chores The man The man The man The The The Both
woman woman woman
Most of Sometimes Never
the time Most of Sometimes Never
the time
Prepares
the food
Prepares
roast beef
Supplies
the pantry
Washes the
dishes
Washes the
bathroom
Washes the
clothes
Folds the
clothes
Repairs the
car
Changes
the oil
Changes
the tires
Does the
garden
Feeds the
baby
Changes
the diaper
Reads
stories at
night
Repairs
toys
In charge
of
discipline
b) Gender perceptions
✓ Would you say that men and women are different? In what sense/aspect?
✓ In respect to the erotic and affective relations, would you describe the behavior of
✓ Where do these differences come from? From the nature of each sex? From
✓ Does the conception of the role of women that the teacher has affect her/his
✓ Would you like that said conception to change? Why? In what direction?
✓ As to that change, what concerns to the educational institute in its widest sense?
This activity explores concepts and the knowledge of students about words used every
day when it comes to speaking about gender. It can be done in groups of students or individually.
a) Game of Concepts
Discrimination Principle that men and woman Woman of Kuwait do not have
do not have equal access and the right to vote.
control of the goods and
opportunities of society, with
the finality of both of them not
participating equally in the
decision making process in
every aspect of public and
private life.
Gender Equality Roles and functions socially Boys and girls receive courses
assigned to both men and of house chores and how to
woman. The gender roles, as a take care of babies.
character of a social product,
are learned and show variations
in time and space.
• First write the word ‘men’ on the board. Locate as many definitions of men as possible.
with synonyms.
• After the two lists have been compiled, record suggested words in two columns:
acceptable and sexist. Some debates may arise about a word, and this is good because the
• Look at the words deemed sexist and how they relate to women.
These words may include terms such as: baby girl, baby, beautiful, loving, sweet, chick,
• Grouping words into categories. You will notice that the first five words are childish,
while the last two are related to animals. This observation begs to question who wants to be
described in terms of an infant or animal. Another potential question could be: are there male
equivalents for these categories? Why? Why not? The big question, of course, is why women are
If the easy word is a negative adjective for women, it is an opportunity to discuss the
double standard. Formulate many equivalents as it can be possible, for both women and men.
One possible suggestion can be “noviera”, womanizer, etc. Discuss what term has negative
connotations or positive for each gender. Finally discuss the following: how the same word may
• Name examples of animals, people and occupations, and place them within the
corresponding column.
• Write a list of occupations on the board. Justify placing words such as: nurse, doctor,
teacher, stylist, police officer, welder, waiter, waiter, maid, tailor, chef, soldier, etc.
• Discuss the premise of "socially correct", how language can be used to promote or
inhibit respect.
• Discuss the use of the terms: Mrs. and Miss. What connotations do they have? Can they
be used to offend? Is there an equivalent for men? Why not? Do these terms correspond to the
• Write a composition about your experiences with sexist language, in all its forms: as a
user and / or recipient. This paper can help synthesize thoughts on the subject and action. Making
public these narratives may show personal feelings upon hearing those words.
• Work in small teams to write an anti-sexist manifesto. Present it to others for discussion
and ratification. This document could be used to formulate a code of language in the classroom.
IV. Conclusion
Bullying has been defined as an unwanted aggressive behavior that implies an imbalance
in real and perceived power. This conduct that has been widely studied and several researchers
have found a profound correlation between bullying and the LGBTTIQ community since the early
stages of elementary school. We have seen too many fatal cases that could have prevented if there
were strong educational strategies or if the corresponding authorities would have intervened on
time. Members from the LGBTTIQ community such as the young activist Jorge Steven have also
been victims of brutal violent crimes. This 19 year old teenager was slaughtered and dismembered
result alarming. Up to November 2013, 18 women have been killed and hundreds have been
injured in Puerto Rico as a result of violent encounters with their partners. The most recent victim
of gender violence has been Ivonne Negrón Cintrón, a woman that was killed after rejecting the
courtship of her neighbor. What it is particularly bizarre about this case is that after it occurred,
the media appeared to justify the killer and blame the victim responsible for her own death. The
fact that there still are newspapers that generate such misleading headlines is an indicator that there
is still so much more to educate in terms of women’s rights and gender perspective. Unfortunately,
media has been our primary source of information since at the moment of this publication the
website of the Office of the Procurator of Women of Puerto Rico lacks the current statistics of
domestic violence to the general public. This being said, there could be even more cases of
The increasing numbers in bullying and domestic violence cases evidence the poor
education in respect of gender perspectives and gender roles in the Puerto Rican society. It is
fundamental that we develop public policies to address the bullying issue since the early stages in
In the previous pages, we proposed a bill that grants the Department of Education of Puerto
Rico the necessary funds to offer teachers a course of no less than 20 hours of advanced education
on violence prevention and gender perspective with a focus on different gender roles, identities
and social constructions. After the completion of this course, the teacher would receive a
the objective of studying and questioning the culturally imposed roles and attitudes that continue
to degrade women. Also, the curriculum will promote inclusive language and encourage equal
access to activities and professions that have been traditionally limited to one sex or the other.
It is only by education that we can get citizens to recognize the importance of gender
equality in daily life in both personal and social levels. If we successfully address the gender issue
through the means of education, there are many other social issues such as violence, crime and
differences in opportunities among sexes that will eventually be solved. The bill that we are
proposing is written after a well thought process that values the power of education. We expect
it to be thoroughly considered and eventually implemented with the purpose of becoming part of
the stepping stones that will trigger the enormous change in gender perspective that Puerto Rico
desperately needs.
Notes
2. Suarez, Gonzalez & Pedrosa “Bullying in Puerto Rico: A Descriptive Study” Parenting
Resources LLC (2013)
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ (accessed November 30,
2013).
7. American Civil Liberties Union “Island of Impunity: Puerto Rico’s Outlaw Police
Force” (2012)
8. González & Anais “Manual de equidad de género para docentes de educación primaria”
Instituto Estatal de Mujeres de Nuevo León (2008)
10. Guerrero, Hurtado, Azua, Provoste “Sobre las imágenes de género” Material de apoyo
de perspectiva de género para formadores y formadoras.