Displaced childhood, besieged school: towards a meaningful intersectoral responses

Abstract

Recent incidents of violence and substance abuse in Chilean schools have understandably generated public alarm, prompting immediate demands for security measures such as metal detectors. This essay argues that such an approach addresses the symptom, but not the root cause of a crisis that is, above all, a crisis of child neglect and displacement. It posits that current childhood and adolescent malaise is shaped by global cultural mandates—individualism, materialism, and hedonism—which, combined with paradoxical contemporary parenting and the absence of adult support, have generated a displacement in four dimensions: from adults, from the body, from territory, and from time. In this context, the school, an institution that has not been redesigned to contain emotions or repair relationships, is besieged and overburdened, forced to assume functions that extend far beyond the purely pedagogical. Faced with this diagnosis, which affects all socioeconomic sectors, an intersectoral response is proposed, structured around three pillars: Re-centering parenting by supporting adult caregivers and educators; Redesigning the school experience by prioritizing belonging, connection, and genuine student participation; and coordinating existing resources in the health, education, and social development sectors. The fundamental ethical principle is "nothing about them without them," recognizing children and adolescents as subjects of rights and key actors in building solutions.