It's 9am, Thursday 3rd May, and today's an open day at IES El Palau, a secondary school in Sant Andreu de la Barca, near Barcelona. The building is clean, gone is the graffiti (link in Catalan) accusing nine teachers of being separatists and nazis. The teachers in question are under investigation for alleged hate crimes having, according to prosecutors, "humiliated" students at the school who are children of Civil Guard gendarmes the day after the Catalan referendum on 1st October last year. A new coat of paint covers the graffiti, but if you go right up to the right place you can still see a hint of the insults. It's a large school, 1,200 students, and just along from the largest Civil Guard building in Catalonia: 120 paces separate the headquarters from the school. And some forty families of the militarised police, of the 200 which live in the barracks, take their children there.
Photo: Sergi Alcàzar
It's a day like any other. At this time the students are in the middle of changing class. One student is asking the caretakers for paper, a group of students don't know which classroom they have to go to and a father is waiting for his daughter. A teacher kisses a student goodbye on the cheek: "Come on, go to class". The girl's friend gets annoyed: "Miss, you never give me a kiss". "It's that you don't deserve it", says the teacher, laughing. Nobody would guess that IES El Palau is in the eye of a storm after prosecutors decided to investigate nine of its teachers for having "singled out the children of civil guards", for having called the police "animals". Nobody would guess that nine teachers appeared with their full names and photographs in the newspaper El Mundo.
"Everything is normal here, like always", they repeat like a mantra. Only one teacher, who I catch before she goes in says "how do you want us to be? Very bad"
The hundred-or-so teachers who work at the school don't want to know anything about journalists: "everything is normal here, like always", they repeat like a mantra. Only one teacher, who I catch before she goes in says "how do you want us to be? Very bad. But sorry, we can't talk about it", she says, quickly stubbing out a cigarette.
I ask to speak with the headteacher and the head of studies. They note the request down, but warn me no one will get back to me.
“The teachers are scared”
Photo: Sergi Alcàzar
Leaving school, Maria (not her real name, all of the minors in this article have been given fake names), tells me that "it's all a lie". "Our teacher is one of those who was reported. That day she said she didn't have the heart to teach, that she was very saddened by what had happened the day before, but that's it, she didn't have a go at the kids of the civil guards, nor the police". At the school, Civil Guard agents pushed and hit members of the public who had formed a human chain out of the way as they tried to confiscate ballot boxes. She believes "it's not fair" everything that's happening: "it's been months since we saw our teacher, they've told us she's out with depression. I'm very sad about it". Maria tells me that the class has decided to not talk about the topic.
Cristina, 16 years old, says the same thing: "we want to be like normal, fine, without any problems. We don't talk about it and if the teachers hear us talk about politics, the process or independence, they make us shut up. You go to school to study, they tell us".
"If the teachers hear us talk about politics, the process or independence, they make us shut up. You go to school to study, they tell us," a student explains
Her friend, Adrià, is 17. He says he's going out with the daughter of one of the civil guards who reported the teachers. "I prefer to not talk about this topic and between us we don't talk about it either. [My girlfriend] still goes to class and the teacher being investigated too and despite the bad atmosphere it seems there should have to be, they have a normal relationship". "It can't be easy," I say. "Yeah... I don't know... we skip over the topic. We've got other things to do".
Jordi, studying a vocational course, says that the teachers are scared. "They don't want to say anything related to the 1st October, nor politics, nor the Civil Guard, because they could be punished for anything". He says he's pro-independence and expresses doubt that any professor "would single out a student for being the child of a Civil Guard".
Spanish and Catalan anthems in class
Among the dozens of students it's easy to make out those who live in the barracks: they're the only ones who cross the avenue and turn onto carrer Empordà. I stop to speak with a small group. They're 14, 15 and 16. They tell me the teachers under investigation "are good people, they're normal" and that "it's all grown quite big". One of them, Toni, says that that day his teacher told them there was going to be a demonstration on the playground. He told them that those who were against the police violence could go to take part and those who were in favour of it should stay in the classroom. "Those of us who are children of police officers stayed, for our parents... My family hasn't reported it because only that happened and that's it".
"In my class there's a very bad atmosphere. Some play the Spanish anthem and others the Catalan one; some say 'visca Puigdemont' all day long and the others 'viva España'," says a student
"So, in my class, there's a very bad atmosphere", says Ester, daughter of a civil guard and wearing a wristband in the colours of the senyera, the Catalan flag, because she feels "very Catalan". "It's because your class is very dodgy", her friends tell her. She tells me that two groups have formed in the classroom: "some play the Spanish anthem and others Els Segadors [the Catalan anthem]; some are [saying] 'visca Puigdemont' all day and the others 'viva España'", she tells me angrily. They want it all to be over, for everything to return to how it was before, for people to stop talking about their school.
Photos: Sergi Alcàzar
The atmosphere at the school has been strained since the 1st October, but the situation has got worse since the announcement by prosecutors they would report against 9 teachers for having created a "climate of hostility" in class towards the children of Civil Guard, criticising the police attacks for preventing the referendum and describing the agents as "animals" and "rabid dogs". There are two investigations open into what happened at the school, which prosecutors asked on Thursday to be combined into a single case. A court in Martorell had earlier split it into the two as the teachers' comments came on two different days: one of them on 20th October, the other eight, on the 2nd. Prosecutors believe the case has to be treated as a whole because the one action can't be understood without the others.
“My son has never been indoctrinated and speaks the language he wants to”
Close to the school is a bar, also called El Palau. With a latte in hand I meet Cecília Pérez and Maria Oller, 61 and 58 years old respectively, who have lived their "whole lives" in the neighbourhood. "We've done business and there's never been any problem". "My son went to IES El Palau. They've never indoctrinated him and he's always spoken whichever he wanted to, Catalan or Spanish". Cecília doesn't believe that any teacher would single out anyone: "It's normal to bring up the topic, it's normal to talk about it after the 1st October and everything that happened. Anything else wouldn't be normal. But from that to indoctrination... It's all being politicised because that interests someone and for me that someone is Ciutadans".
Her friend, Maria, shows surprise over the commotion: "my daughter, who also studied at IES, called me to say: 'But, mum, what's going on? I'm gob-smacked, I'm very offended with everything that's being said about the school, slagging it off. They didn't indoctrinate me".
As we talk, in the bar next door, El Barrio, there is at least one Civil Guard. In uniform. He tells us that his children study at IES but for vocational diplomas and that nobody has said anything to them ever. He says that in the barracks "the topic is discussed a lot", but he prefer to not go into it. "Before and after the 1st October and before and after the controversy with the teachers, my friends are still my friends, whether they're on one side or another. Here we only argue about football". He supports Barça.
Photo: Sergi Alcàzar
By the headquarters, there are the wives of two civil guards. "It's already hard enough to live here after the 1st October, now they've put the kids in the middle". One of them tells me that her daughter is taught by one of the teachers under investigation. "I haven't reported [them], I went to speak directly with her tutor. I was clear: if you want to burn bins, burn them, but after 2:30pm [when school ends]". Her friend, who also has children at the school, is angry: "I don't believe they would single them out, but they certainly spoke about politics and expressed their ideas and that, in the classroom, you can't do".
Meanwhile, life in the neighbourhood goes on. People go shopping, retirees take in the sun, mothers stroll through the streets with their babies and on the balconies you see some senyeres, some Spanish flags and some banners reading "Democracy".