"Occupy Mendes": when the drug of obedience doesn't work anymore! Reports of the student occupation of the colégio estadual Mayor Mendes de Moraes, the first occupied school in the state of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Situated in the context of student occupations - which set the scene Brazilian politician since the end of 2015, arriving in schools in Rio de Janeiro in early 2016 - this work aims to report and reflect on the process of emergence of the student occupation movement in this school and its political articulation with the other actors of the school community , its dilemmas and conflicts, the political experimentation of school management of high school students through occupation, their insertions in political spaces, as well as the democratic exercises built in the occupation of the school and its subsequent developments. For this, reports were used by four students about the occupation process, their demands for political participation, specific demands regarding gender and sexuality at school, the experience of student representation and organization of the school space, in addition to internal resistance (demotion) “Vacates”) and achievements. We also seek to address the political processes that preceded the emergence of the occupation movement at school, the limits of democracy in the school space and the transformations from the occupation process carried out by the students. This article is the result of a collective exercise, built by students of different grades, who participated in the first experience of student occupation in the state of Rio de Janeiro, together with one of their teachers, respecting the free language and the argumentative choices made by students.