Student voices drive anti-bullying efforts in Bolivia
Youth in Tupiza, Bolivia, are taking the lead in confronting rising bullying and school violence. Supported by GPE’s Education Out Loud, CEMSE and ACLO, student governments organized trainings on leadership and peaceful coexistence, which empowered them to draft a municipal law to prevent and address school violence.
“Teacher, we want to talk and play without fear during recess.” This statement, made in 2024 by male and female students from the student government of the Villa Fátima “B” educational unit, highlighted a problem that was growing silently: bullying and violence among peers in educational units in Tupiza.
One in three students aged 13 to 15 in Latin America has experienced school violence in the form of bullying, an experience that affects their emotional well-being, academic performance, and school attendance. Students in Tupiza witness and experience school violence despite regulations promoting peaceful coexistence, including the Code for Children and Adolescents (Law 548).
Tupiza is a municipality with a small population concentrated in its capital city and scattered rural communities; families are engaged in trade, mining, and traditional agricultural production.
From fear to action: students organize for safer schools
During 2024, student government representatives from Tupiza reported an increase in cases of bullying, verbal abuse, and exclusion among students in the municipality’s schools. Institutional silence and the absence of clear protocols for dealing with acts of violence prompted them to seek a comprehensive solution, as the isolated campaigns they were leading were insufficient.
The municipal law proposed by the students directly responds to these gaps by including preventive measures such as training and awareness raising in schools, as well as clear reporting, referral, and follow up mechanisms. These aim to ensure that cases of bullying and violence are addressed in coordination with education authorities and other local actors.
“We want municipal and educational institutions to commit to preventing, addressing, and following up on cases of school violence, and to comply with the Code for Children and Adolescents (Law 548),” says Claudia Ibáñez, president of the student government at the Andrés de Santa Cruz educational unit.
The municipal law proposed by the students directly responds to these gaps by including preventive measures such as training and awareness raising in schools, as well as clear reporting, referral, and follow up mechanisms. These aim to ensure that cases of bullying and violence are addressed in coordination with education authorities and other local actors.
“We want municipal and educational institutions to commit to preventing, addressing, and following up on cases of school violence, and to comply with the Code for Children and Adolescents (Law 548),” says Claudia Ibáñez, president of the student government at the Andrés de Santa Cruz educational unit.
With support from Education Out Loud, the world’s largest advocacy fund for education, the Centro de Multiservicios Educativos (CEMSE) and Fundación Acción Cultural Loyola (ACLO) supported student-led training workshops on school management, peaceful coexistence, leadership, and youth participation. These workshops not only strengthened students’ knowledge but also awakened a sleeping giant: a powerful sense of responsibility and leadership as agents of change in education.
Student leadership within a national effort to prevent school violence
In 2025, Bolivia approved the Strategy to Fight Violence in the Educational Field, developed by the Ministry of Education and other government agencies. The strategy seeks to create safe, inclusive schools through comprehensive prevention and response measures.
A national committee oversees implementation, while the Departmental Committee Against Violence in the Educational Field (CODECVAE) coordinates and monitors efforts at the departmental level. Within this evolving national policy framework, adolescents and young people decided to develop a municipal law on the prevention, care, and follow up of cases of bullying and school violence in Tupiza.
Seeking to make this process as participatory as possible, student delegates from various schools gathered over two intensive sessions. They shared their own experiences of bullying, difficulties in reporting cases, lack of support and emotional accompaniment, and the absence of concrete mechanisms and actors to address and support their complaints.
“This project was born from our experiences of bullying and violence in schools,” says Alison Alfaro Cadena, president of one of the student governments. “Our role was to translate the students’ experiences into a clear and applicable standard,” adds Nelva Camata, representative of the Public Defender’s Office, who was involved in the participatory construction of the law in 2024, together with civil society and the Municipal Council’s Gender Commission.
The result is a document that is both legitimate and specific to the organizations of adolescents and young people in Tupiza, and aligned with the Code for Children and Adolescents (Law 548). The law was presented to the Municipal Council and approved with some observations. Once these observations were addressed, the law was sent to the mayor’s office, where a legal advisor is currently reviewing the documentation.
Once approved, the municipal law on the prevention, care, and follow up of cases of bullying and school violence in Tupiza will be enacted and will come into force.
The students’ commitment to developing and proposing a municipal law for the prevention, care, and monitoring of cases of bullying and violence in schools in Tupiza demonstrates that organized youth have the capacity and strength to transform realities of exclusion and violation of their rights. By responding to gaps in existing approaches, they are advancing clearer preventive measures and shared pathways for addressing cases within the local education system.
In a municipality where school bullying profoundly affects the learning and lives of thousands of students, adolescents and young people have pointed the way toward effective responses by public institutions and social organizations, demanding commitment from the adults who lead them.
“By supporting and accompanying this initiative, we have seen that strengthening the capacities of adolescents and young people has multiplier effects,” says Miguel Quentasi, project technician and ACLO representative
When students organize themselves, deepen their analysis of their reality, and discover how to channel their creative energy, they glimpse possibilities for launching transformative initiatives as subjects of rights and actors in inclusive, equitable, quality education.
Such progress encourages the sharing of lessons learned and their replication in other municipalities and contexts.