“Crisis of NOT/NEVER ending

By: Débora Fontánez Flecha, MSW

According to Cambridge Dictionary, crisis, is a time of great confusion, disagreement, or suffering. But when that "moment" occurs over and over again in a relatively short time and does not allow you to get up when there is another moment of crisis, it is like a never-ending crisis. How much can a human being endure? Will he be able to overcome the "crisis" or "rise" from it? I visualize one of those inflatable toys that when you hit it touches the ground, but it comes back and gets up. When will it end?

For the past five years, our school community has been "hit" on various fronts. I have observed that crisis after crisis, difficulty after difficulty we have fought, we have risen. Some of these situations have not been caused by human hand but others have. How long can we resist without getting hurt? What have been the losses? What have been the earnings?

A certain person commented to me, "Wow, your school (school community) has been through a lot." Which caused all these questions to emerge and make a critical analysis of each event that we have lived and gone through.

We are all immersed in this economic crisis as a result of the bad decisions of others, due to our colonial situation, due to 

the "vultures" who, taking advantage of our vulnerability, 

have taken advantage of our nation. Economic crisis that 

have been tried to resolve by sacrificing the most vulnerable; the working class, the pensioners, the essential services. The essential services offered to people who are immersed in 

poverty, not because they want to but because there is a 

capitalist “vulture” system that depends on them being poor 

for them to be rich. Time that sacrificing the education of a 

nation is in order. The less knowledge and the less educated 

the citizens are, the less power, the less strength to stand up 

and claim their rights. Rights that correspond to them 

because they are citizens of this country. The right to an 

education that is conducive to the full development of the 

human being, as established by our constitution, is 

threatened with the closing of schools, with educational 

vouchers, with public schools’ alliances (charter schools) and with less school funds each year. A crisis of not ending.

Then with the visit of Hurricane Maria, the extreme poverty 

that many are immersed in was made visible. Maria revealed our vulnerability, but also revealed that we are a resilient 

nation. Our colonizer treated us like third class "citizens", 

ignorant and corrupt, unable to solve their own problems. I 

tell them if we were ignorant, they would not visit our nation every year in search of human resources. "Corrupts" exist 

everywhere, people with greed who only think about their 

well-being and not the well-being of the group/people. We 

are going to identify them, and we will not vote for them, we will remove them as we did that month of July 2019. Today 

we still live the havoc of hurricane Maria, but we have risen 

like the Phoenix bird that still rises from the ashes.

The closure of hundreds of schools occurs justifying its 

closings to the economic crisis and the emigration to US of 

thousands of Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria. Closings were made in an arbitrary manner without the participation 

of school communities, taking into account the idiosyncrasies and particularities of each school community affecting the 

most vulnerable, the child-youth population. This led to 

overcrowd classrooms in the replacement’s schools. Process 

that was carried out in a hasty manner without the allocation of additional funds to offer a quality and efficient education. Process that was carried out without considering the emotional and social impact to which our student population would 

be subjected. Relocated population as a result of a previous 

school closure, then the effects of Hurricane Maria and now 

this new relocation in a period of 2 to 3 years. Our students 

are not merchandise that we can relocate at our wish or need, they are citizens, they are subjects with rights. Crisis of not 

ending.

In the second semester of 2019 the school community receives the threat of turning it into a Charter School. Process that 

occurs arbitrarily without consultation with the school 

community. The school community is made up of citizens 

with the full right of direct participation in all the processes 

that affect them. Once again, our students go through 

moments of tension, insecurity and the bitter experience of 

taken away from what they had just begun to adapt. The 

community stands up and claims and defends its public 

school. And it won.

During that summer of 2019, our nation up rose and claimed respect and repudiated corruption, injustice, and inequity. 

We began the school semester with more determination. In 

the second semester our land shook. Education takes a hard 

hit again. Many displaced people, the fragile construction of 

our schools was made visible. It was recognized that our 

schools were death traps where the most vulnerable, the child-youth population, came every day to acquire new knowledge. The second semester begins after the stipulated date, one 

month later. We had to start by sharing our physical space 

with another school community (interlocking). Process 

carried out arbitrarily, without consulting all the components of these school communities, including the children who 

would be directly affected, again. How much more can they 

hold and endure?

Five weeks passed and we faced this pandemic, COVOD-19. More than 60 days of confinement have passed. More than 

60 days of physical distancing. I am confident that from this new crisis we can emerge stronger and able to face and 

endure whatever comes our way. I hope we can shed that 

colonized mentality that binds us, that annihilates our will 

that as a nation we can claim our right to make our own 

decisions and claim what our people need, because it is an 

inalienable right.