The Students' Resistance Movement at Preparatoria 5 and 6 from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, 2005 was a local response from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to allegations of years of abuse and institutionalized crime by groups commonly known as "porros" who operated within the public high schools. Students joined with the parents associations to defeat the porros. The schools involved were; Preparatoria 5 José Vasconcelos, Preparatoria 6 Antonio Caso, and Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades Azcapotzalco.
Contents
Events
Diego Contreras, a student, was allegedly attacked on November 10, 2005 by a criminal group operating within Preparatoria 6. Several activists took over the high schools in and effort to demand the expulsion of corrupt authorities and several criminals who were enrolled as students in these schools. The high schools remained under the activists control for several weeks.
In Preparatoria 6 the parents association in cooperation with teachers, confronted authorities regarding the lack of action against the criminal groups. They pointed out the potential negligence by the school's principal Apolonio García Sanchez, who was not respected and later asked to resign. It was here where the first meeting with the director of Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, Héctor Herrera took place. Students asked him for more security on the outskirts of the establishment and the reinstatement of expelled activists.
Students from Preparatoria 5 demanded that the authorities from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and its director Héctor Herrera sign certain petitions, that provided for increased control of the establishment's access, the forced resignation of several employees known to support the porros, and the expulsion of those involved in assaults on students.
Academic activities during the takeover
Academic activities continued in both establishments during the incident, with access controlled by students and elements of Auxilio UNAM (a university security axillary). These forces ensured that porros were unable to enter and provoke any violence. The students announced the establishment of meetings and informative brigades to present their reasons for protesting.
Resolution
After lengthy negotiations between the students and authorities, they reached several agreements:
At Preparatoria 6 authorities granted the removal of Principal Apolonio García Sánchez, the hiring of new security elements to ensure greater safety, and the creation of a local security council responsible for ensuring the fulfillment of the agreements.
At Preparatoria 5 the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (ENP) decided fire the private secretary of the director, the head of the legal office, the secretary of support to the community, and the academic secretary of the "vespertine" turn. Additionally, the performance of the school prefects would be reviewed and monitoring of the school would be reinforced.
On November 22, 2005, in a general assembly held by the students the agreements were signed and the high schools’ offices were returned to their respective authorities.