Violence in schools has unfortunately become widespread in most countries. In some cases, it is so evident that many new organizations and government bodies have been formed to deal with it. A good part of this violence is gender-related or ostensibly sexual in content. Sexual abuse from teachers, administrative staff and between children and youth is not infrequent in Mexico although only until recently it has begun to be systematically denounced. This paper will present the five-year experience of the Unit for attention of school violence, mistreatment, neglect and sexual abuse of the Mexican Ministry of Education. It will discuss some of the factors that determine school-violence such as social, familial and internal-school factors. The presentation will present some of the strategies including sex education that have been used and/or recommended in the Unit and the results achieved during the five-year period that the Unit has been in existence. Lessons learned will be derived as well as some suggestions for further implementation.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Sydney, Australia, April 2007
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