Unicamp (State University of Campinas) fired a professor accused of attacking and threatening students with a knife in October 2023, during a student strike.
The dismissal was published by the university in the Official Gazette on Monday (1st). The ordinance says that Rafael de Freitas Leão, professor at IMECC (Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing), committed a very serious disciplinary offense.
The professor had been away from his position since October 4, the day after he was detained by the Military Police on the Unicamp campus. A Sheet He tried to contact Leão this Tuesday morning (2), but received no response.
According to Unicamp, dismissal is provided for in the university’s statute in cases where the employee “performs acts defined as an infraction by criminal laws”, “maintains bad conduct” and/or “performs acts of violence of any type”.
“Unicamp’s rectory clarifies that the decision was taken based on the final report of the Permanent Processing Committee that analyzed the case, subsequently endorsed by the University’s Attorney General’s Office. The process took place in accordance with the university’s internal rules, guaranteeing the professor all the possibilities to exercise its broad defense”, says a note from the rectory.
The case happened on the morning of October 3 last year, when Leão was arrested on suspicion of threatening two students with a knife and pepper spray.
The teacher allegedly threatened the students after they entered his classroom to say that the DCE (Central Student Directory) had decided to stop activities that day. The teacher then took out the knife and started threatening the students.
In a video recorded by other students, it is possible to see the moment when the teacher runs down a corridor with a knife in hand towards one of the students. The young man clashes with the professor to disarm him, and only then do two university security guards appear to restrain the professor.
Leão was detained by military police officers after the incident and taken to a police station.
The professor reported to the police authorities that, upon arriving at the university, he was prevented from teaching by a group of students. “The teacher was knocked to the ground and used pepper spray and a knife to defend himself,” the police report said.
The police record placed professor Rafael de Freitas Leão as the victim. The case was registered as bodily injury and incitement to crime.
In an interview with Sheet rector Antonio José Meirelles said that Unicamp experienced one of the saddest days in its history with the incident.
“There were undemocratic stances on both sides in this dispute. It is not possible for a professor to come to the university with pepper spray and a knife. This is unacceptable. Just as it is unacceptable for students or outsiders to prevent activities from taking place” , said Meirelles.
At the time, students from at least 23 courses at Unicamp had approved the strike, in support of protests against the privatization of state bodies and against the situation at universities in São Paulo.
Just like in the USP strike, Unicamp students demanded the hiring of teachers and staff. They also called for improvements to the university’s infrastructure, as some courses would be operating in buildings with precarious structures.
They also demanded the expansion of student retention policies, with the readjustment of scholarship values and the construction of student housing on the Limeira and Piracicaba campuses.
Tags: Unicamp fires teacher accused threatening students Education
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