Spain: In the streets of Valencia teachers and parents for closed schools 30 Days After Floods · Global Voices

In protest of closed schools, a month of flooding, families and teachers protested on Saturday (23.11.2024). Protesters are calling for measures to be taken for schools damaged. Nearly thirty days after the recent devastating floods in which 220 people, families, and teachers were killed holding signs inviting the mayor of Valencia, Carlos Maton, to resign, marched the city. The way local authorities managed the floods still causes reactions. A teacher association accused authorities of leaving school cleaning to teachers and students. Five people remain missing to date, after the torrential rains and floods of October 29 swept cars and homes, causing their collapse in some cases. Thirty schools have not yet been opened, according to the STEPV union, resulting in 13,000 children being deprived of the right to knowledge. About 5,000 people participated in the demonstration. “We feel abandoned because teachers, parents and volunteers were forced to clean schools. We saw cleaning workshops in some schools, but they were not enough,” STEPV spokesman Mark Candela told Reuters. A representative of the local government said that since November 11 they have returned to school halls 32,000 students from the affected areas. Mathon is accused of being delayed sending warning messages about the floods. He admitted to making mistakes but refuses to resign and claims that the agency responsible for measuring water flows, whose supervision the central government has, did not send a warning in time.