School Sexual Abuse, Code of Ethics, and Institutional Illusions: Barbarism in Modern Education

Sexual abuse in school environments is not an isolated act, but the result of historically entrenched power structures in education. These hierarchies, legitimized by authority figures like teachers, exploit mechanisms such as academic control (threats of failure, grade manipulation), emotional manipulation (exploitation of adolescent vulnerability), and spatiotemporal dominance (isolation under pedagogical pretexts) to violate student dignity. While the text references thinkers like Hobbes and Ortega y Gasset to analyze humanity’s duality between civilization and barbarism, its most relevant focus lies in criticizing the inadequacy of the MINERD Code of Ethics. Said document, by delegating oversight to internal committees, reproduces the same power dynamics it aims to eradicate. The proposed solution—an independent body to audit educational relationships— seeks to dismantle oppressive hierarchies and redefine teacher authority as ethical service. However, it becomes clear that no code will be effective without a cultural transformation prioritizing transparency, active prevention, and, above all, the non-negotiable respect for human rights in classrooms. Education, in its essence, must cease to reflect barbarism and instead become a space of real emancipation.