Portfolio presentation of published journalism. Original article: BBC News Brasil
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Investigation

Girls report sexual harassment by military monitors in Paraná schools

Alunas denunciam PMs por assédio em escolas cívico-militares no Paraná

Allegations of sexual assault and harassment remain largely hidden by lack of transparency as military-staffed schools expand across Brazil

Luiz Fernando Toledo BBC News Brasil from London 5 February 2026 | 5 de fevereiro de 2026

Content warning: This article contains reports of sexual violence that may be disturbing.

Aviso de conteúdo: Este artigo contém relatos de violência sexual que podem ser perturbadores.

A group of at least nine girls, aged 11 to 13, reported that a military official would have touched parts of their bodies, including the breast of one of them, on different dates, in a civic-military school in Cornélio Procópio, in the interior of Paraná. The case occurred in 2023.

The reports were taken to the police. An investigation was opened for investigation of rape of a vulnerable person, and the case proceeded to justice, where a process still runs under secrecy. After the reports, the military monitor continued working at school. He was removed from the government of Paraná almost two years later, in 2025.

Civic-military school

A pattern of harassment

Civic-military schools, created in 2021 with goals such as guaranteeing more security to students and demanding more discipline, have been targeted by allegations of harassment and other types of sexual violations against students.

The Paraná civic-military model, which holds the largest number of such enrollments in Brazil—the Paraná government speaks of 55% of schools across the country—and is expected to expand this network in 2026, provides for the hiring of inactive military personnel for R$ 5,500 monthly for administrative and student monitoring positions, in addition to other assignments.

These schools are popular among families, who face long waiting lists for enrollment in Paraná. But they are also the target of criticism from some teachers and a lawsuit in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), where PT and PSOL allege that they promote early militarization of students, among other arguments—the case has not yet been ruled on.

School building

What the girls reported

The judicial process in Cornélio Procópio, which runs under secrecy, brings detailed reports from the girls. According to information from the police inquiry that appears in the case, the monitor would have touched parts of the girls' bodies when "was going to call their attention or talk."

The mother of one of the girls reported in the case that, every time the monitor spoke with her daughter or other girls, "he would put his hand on their shoulder, on their waist" or squeeze their arm. Another student said, according to the case, that he grabbed "her neck, hand, hair and waist and this caused her some discomfort."

She said further that he "even touched her breast during a conversation, but cannot explain whether he touched or looked at her sexually." Another girl said that, after arguing with a friend, she went to resolve the situation in front of the monitor, "at which time her leg began to tremble." The monitor then began "to pass his hand over her leg, which made her uncomfortable, but she understood that he was trying to calm her."

"When is an aggressor not allowed to remain in the school environment, until an investigation is concluded, he can continue working in administrative processes at the Education Secretariat, but not in school, in no way."

Amanda Sadalla, Serenas
Report documentation

Delayed dismissal

An official investigation was opened in 2023. The military officer would be removed from the program almost two years later, in 2025, according to data from the Transparency Portal seen by BBC News Brasil. The monitor had been in the civic-military schools program since 2021.

After the allegations, the school restricted the contact of the accused staff member with students, keeping him in administrative activities. Because the case has not yet been tried on the merits, the name of the military monitor was preserved in this report.

His defense says he is innocent and that there was acquittal in the case—as the proceedings are not public, the reporting team could not confirm this information. The Paraná government did not comment on the defense's statement.

School corridor

Other reported cases

At least three other cases have already been reported in local Paraná press, two of them involving military staff and a third, a teacher. In December last year, for example, the state Public Ministry criminally charged a staff member of a civic-military school in Capitão Leônidas Marques, in western Paraná, for rape of a vulnerable person and threats against three adolescents. The man would have touched the adolescents and even threatened one of them.

"The server would have taken advantage of his function in the school to practice libidinous acts against three student adolescents, in addition to threatening one of them so she would not tell anything," said prosecutor Renato Sampaio Cavalheiro in a statement released by the Public Ministry on its website. "The objective now is to seek criminal conviction and damages compensation to the victims."

Another case, reported by the G1 portal, occurred in 2021, the year the civic-military schools program began, in Francisco Beltrão, southwestern Paraná. A reserve military police officer was arrested, and the PM executed a search and seizure warrant at the suspect's house. There was also an episode involving a math teacher, suspected of harassing female students at a civic-military school in Ponta Grossa. He was accused of sexual harassment and sexual harassment.

School staff

Verbal harassment allegations

Beyond cases of physical sexual assault, BBC News Brasil also identified allegations of verbal harassment by students.

"If you come with that outfit again, I'm going to take you to the corner." This was the phrase that a former student of the Júlio Mesquita civic-military school, in Curitiba, Paraná, reported hearing from a military monitor who works at the school in 2024. "Clearly they compared us to prostitutes," she said.

The ex-student's account appears in a harassment complaint sent to APP-Sindicato, which told the reporting team it will forward the complaint to the Paraná government and to the Police Ombudsman. According to the statement to the union, the school employee would have also said: "If you come with that outfit, we, men, will clearly look at you."

"The school that says it protects the student tries to manipulate us. Piercing, hair color, earrings, necklaces, etc. We are not in a barracks. And they are there only wandering around the school, imposing unnecessary rules as if we were soldiers in the army," says the ex-student in the complaint sent to the union. "We are teenagers, with personality. We have been forced to remove makeup completely, embarrassed because we went with tighter pants or a blouse that was not from the civic-military. When we report harassment, they blame us."

9+
Girls reporting harassment in one case
4
Cases confirmed by investigation
300+
Military monitors dismissed since 2021

Lack of transparency

A survey by BBC News Brasil found that more than 300 military monitors have been dismissed since the implementation of the civic-military schools program in 2021, but the reasons are not publicly disclosed. This does not mean they committed any irregularity. The rules allow the military's departure in cases of health problems, serious transgressions or at the military's own request. But the Paraná government's Transparency Portal does not inform the specific reasons.

The names of dismissed military personnel, according to the Paraná government, are also considered confidential information, protected by the General Data Protection Law (LGPD). In practice, the government's interpretation places this data in secrecy indefinitely—the law provides for data retention for up to a hundred years.

Sexual assault is not a type of occurrence exclusive to this school model. In schools in the public network of Paraná that follow the traditional model (i.e., that are not civic-military), BBC News Brasil identified about 400 procedures already instituted, since 2022, by the Education Secretariat, to investigate alleged cases of sexual harassment committed by civil employees. It is the Secretariat itself that investigates these cases.

"Violence against girls happens mainly within the home and, secondly, at school. Gender-based violence within schools perpetrated by school professionals is a reality across the entire country."

Amanda Sadalla, Serenas Director

Amanda Sadalla, executive director and co-founder of Serenas, a nonprofit organization that supports governments in developing public policies to prevent gender-based violence, says that in cases of allegations by female students, the correct procedure is to remove the accused from school. "He can continue working in administrative processes at the Education Secretariat, but not in school, until an investigation is completed. He cannot remain within the school environment in any way," says Sadalla.

Government response

In a joint statement, the Paraná Education and Public Security Secretariats say that the comparison between civic-military and regular schools in this context is "inappropriate." They say that "the records are punctual and isolated, resulting in a reduced sample, insufficient to attribute greater incidence of this type of occurrence to a specific educational model."

The government does not comment on the police's refusal to disclose the total number of procedures instituted against military personnel, nor the reason for the dismissals of more than 300 monitors. It says that there were 14 allegations in these institutions. "In all of them, professionals were immediately removed from their functions during the investigation and dismissed ex officio—without need for a court decision—after the conclusion of the investigations."

The secretariats affirm that they "act in strict observance of the principles of integral protection, absolute priority and the best interest of the child and adolescent." They add that "all allegations are investigated in accordance with current legislation and the functional bond of the professional, with both civil and military employees being preventively removed whenever there is a record of allegation." The departments also affirm that the State "maintains a zero tolerance policy for any form of harassment or violence in the school environment."