The children of Fresnillo (Zacatecas) have changed sports, dance and art classes for the practice of drills to know how to protect themselves in a shooting.
In the middle of summer vacation, a dozen preschool and elementary school children lie face down on the floor and cover their heads with both hands while they sing a song.
"Sing, sing," encourage some of the teachers who accompany them, while a group of police officers watch them from the back of a room.
It is a drill carried out as part of a course in a library in Fresnillo, the city with the highest perception of insecurity in all of Mexico: 97% of the 240,000 inhabitants of this municipality are afraid to go out into the streets due to the onslaught of violence that has persisted for more than a decade.
“My vacations at the Fresnillo library”, a summer course organized by the Municipal Coordination of Public Libraries and the local Public Security Directorate, offers, in addition to this drill, other unusual tasks to teach children to live in a hostile environment and marked by clashes with members of organized crime.
On the one hand, the play "Rescuing Tito Robertito", where minors can learn how to prevent a crime of kidnapping.
Simitrio Quezada, organizer of the courses and head of the public libraries in the municipality, is not afraid that they will say that he is normalizing violence with these drills.
“We assume the risk of disapproval and of these comments that they are making, that it is like accepting that the government has not been able to, because for us the life of a boy or a girl is more important than discredit or what they can say," he says in an interview.
The sound of gunshots heard in videos widely shared on social networks around children, it is about small pyrotechnic devices used in these exercises, while teachers are encouraged to reassure students.
On the other hand, the staging is immersive.
The minors disguise themselves as police expert services personnel and are in charge of collecting clues to find the whereabouts of Robertito, who is kidnapped with tricks while his mother is absorbed in a cell phone chat.
"The children are reconstructing the case and giving it a solution until the child is rescued and the aggressor is captured," says Quezada.
An expert gives training to some children during a summer course in Fresnillo, Zacatecas. Municipal Public Security Directorate of Fresnillo
A third activity includes a patrol ride, where officers explain to minors how security patrols are carried out and how to look for criminals in the streets.
Shootings near libraries and schools are a daily occurrence in the State of Zacatecas.
Just a couple of days ago, an armed group ambushed members of the municipal police, killing one and seriously injuring two others.
And it is the children who have the worst time in the exchange of bullets between the uniformed men and criminals.
"We have lacked support from the federal government for the security strategy in this area of Zacatecas," says Quezada.
In the coming weeks before the school year resumes and as part of the permanent campaign, activities and drills will continue to be carried out to teach minors how to protect themselves in the 11 public libraries of the municipality and in traveling sessions for rural localities.
"In these libraries we don't just teach reading," says the coordinator of these activities.
Not only the students of Fresnillo and the State of Zacatecas have been forced to practice shooting drills.
Since 2011, a viral video of a preschool teacher in Monterrey asking her students to sing during the fire between police and drug traffickers, several public and private schools have decided to teach students how to react.
However, for some psychologists and pedagogues, this type of drill can generate fear and trauma, especially in the little ones.
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