Rio Grande do Sul – The First State to prepare a legislation against Bullying

Porto Alegre (The Capital of the State Rio Grande do Sul) is the first state in Brazil to have a law against the School Bullying, the humiliation in front of friends because of intolerance. Already sanctioned by governor Yeda Crusius, the law obligate public and private schools develop permanent actions of prevention to acts of intimidation between students and fast identification of bullying cases.


The objective of the law is making the schools investigate e register cases. The law considers bullying from swearwords until aggressions and intended destruction of belongings of the victim. There’s no castigation fixed. The new law was created after a big repercussion case: the death of the teenager Matheus Dalvit, bullying victim, in May. According the police, the victim was 15 years old and used to be antagonized in the school because he was overweight. The teenager was shot and killed while he was waiting the bus, after class, at Porto Alegre. Two colleagues, underage too, were responsible for the crime.

Who practices bullying can be criminally framed for crimes of intolerance already criminalized in the Penal Code, as injury.

Date: 07/02/2010
Source: Folhapress

Translated by: Sarah L. D. G.