Damián Bernabéu, a 63-year-old vocational education teacher with 36 years of experience, says he was injured when police moved against a group of striking teachers in central Madrid on October 19. He has filed a complaint at a duty court, describing the police response as “brute force against completely peaceful people.”
The demonstration had moved from outside the regional education department on Alcalá Street to the Palacio de Santoña, where an event involving regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso was taking place. Bernabéu says an officer pushed him with a shield, causing him to fall against a wall. He was left with bruising and swelling on his back, which he says makes it painful to get up from a chair or bed.
Bernabéu was treated later that day at the 12 de Octubre University Hospital. He said he was struck by the contrast between the kindness of the vocational student who attended to him and the police officer’s actions. The teacher said he tried to speak to the officer after getting up with another protester’s help, asking whether the officers had children and what they would tell them about hitting teachers.
Teachers at the protest were calling for changes including fewer teaching hours and higher pay. Bernabéu’s own concern is the end of his contract this summer. He says the Madrid regional government also did not renew the contracts of around 18 vocational education teachers he knows, many of them with decades of experience.
Bernabéu belonged to the Technical Teachers of Vocational Training Corps, a category declared extinct under Spain’s LOMLOE education law. The law set out a route for teachers to move into the secondary education corps, requiring them to extend their qualifications. He says he hopes to find a way back into work.
Unions say more than 10 people were injured across the October 19 demonstration and a separate protest at Complutense University of Madrid on October 14. They have filed complaints over police actions, while the teachers’ strike committee has called on the Government Delegation to investigate. Madrid’s regional education official Mercedes Zarzalejo later wrote on social media that the strikers “don’t want peace in the streets, they want Paris.”
Bernabéu says he has faced periods of unemployment before, including in 2017, and has received psychological treatment for stress. He taught mainly electricity and says vocational workshops and equipment have changed little despite advances in technology. He remains determined to continue supporting the strike: after a call from his son, also a teacher, he got up to join another education protest.
Sources: El País Educación.