The Roldán case leaves the school trapped in a no-win conflict

PalmaThe current legislation allows a teacher convicted of child abuse to continue working in classrooms after serving their sentence. This is the current situation, awaiting the Spanish government to finalize the text of the reform of the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence (Lopivi) to prevent such cases, with the question still open as to whether it will be applied retroactively. The debate has accelerated following the case of Miquel Roldán, a temporary teacher convicted in 2024 to one year in prison for abusing a former student. The law does not provide for cases like Roldán's, and he has been able to return to work.

The case of the teacher has put the educational system on the ropesdue to legislation that obliges centers and the Administration to manage extreme situations without clear intervention tools. With the Ministry conditioned by judicial rulings and families mobilized in protest, the school has become the scene of a conflict that already transcends the specific case. Now, with the reform of the Lopivi on the horizon, the debate broadens beyond CEIP Son Pisà, where Roldán works: how far should the protection of individual rights go when they come into tension with security and trust within the classrooms. The center is returning to its daily routine, but the wound remains open. And a question remains suspended, hovering over the entire system: what will happen the next time Roldán changes schools?

According to the court ruling, Miquel Roldán started playing padel with the victim in 2020, after meeting him during the 2016-2017 academic year. In September 2021, the minor broke off the relationship due to loss of trust following personal messages and invitations, and Roldán began harassing behavior to find out the reason: he sent him messages, attended his tournaments, showed up at his father's home with warnings and threats, and also went to the institute. Police intervention was necessary, and officers escorted the victim for weeks when entering and leaving the center.

Since Roldan returned to teaching at the end of 2024, there has been confusion about the crime he committed: he has been convicted of harassment of minors, not sexual harassment. The professor of Criminal Law at the UIB, Eduard Ramon, clarifies: the Penal Code defines the crime of harassment in article 172 ter as a set of insistent and repeated behaviors, where repetition is key. Unlike sexual harassment, it may not require a single, particularly serious behavior, but rather persistence in actions such as seeking physical proximity, pursuing, or watching the victim.

Angry families

Roldán's return to the classrooms has generated rejection: mobilized families, tense schools and, in the most extreme cases – as at CEIP Maria Antònia Salvà (where years ago he had already had problems with students) and now at CEIP Son Pisà –, children who have stopped going to class to avoid coinciding with him. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is trying to manage the situation with no legal room for maneuver: with his rights restored and his sentence served, Roldán cannot be removed from the classrooms. 

In the centers where she has worked, unease has settled in from the first moment. “The general mood has always been one of concern”, explains Verónica Fillol, spokesperson for the Apima of CEIP Son Pisà, who describes how families have organized themselves to contain the tension: “There are families who have acted as a containment wall with others: very agitated people and very calm people. Being able to meet has helped us to support each other; some calmed the others”. 

The conflict, however, has had a direct impact on daily life: “Psychologically, for many people it has been very hard: if I take the child to school, I suffer, and if I don't take him, I can't work and I don't make ends meet”. Added to this is the difficulty of managing it with the children: “The children chat among themselves and, if three are scared, it spreads”

School, a safe space?

The lack of understanding regarding the institutional response is shared. “It is not understood why the Ministry cannot act. Yes, he has the right to reintegration, but he has not served a social sentence. People have not forgotten him, everything is very recent”, points out Fillol. A mother from the center agrees: “We are worried about bringing children to a space that we do not consider safe”. The tension, she says, also affects the students: “A child does not know exactly what bullying is, but they do perceive that there is a person who has done bad things with minors, and then they don't know how they should act, if they should avoid them, and they ask us”. And she concludes: “In a private school this would be unthinkable, and it makes you think that public schools have to put up with everything. That all the bad things happen to us”.

“The Ministry has little room for action, because when there is a ruling that determines that a person is not disqualified, it cannot disqualify them administratively”, explain sources close to the Department of Educational Inspection (DIE). “It is understandable that families consider that this person should not be with students. However, the Ministry cannot apply a sanction if there is no judicial ruling that allows it. The Administration has its hands very tied”, they add.

The same sources focus on the fact that, despite the media impact of the Roldán case, it is common for inspectors to have to intervene in conflicts of equal or greater seriousness. “Nowadays, situations like Roldán's are closely monitored. From time to time, accusations appear in the field of Secondary and Vocational Training related to sexual harassment or inappropriate pressure. Before, many of these cases remained hidden; now they are reported and protocols are activated immediately,” they explain.

Going to class is a right and an obligation

The families' protest has opened the debate on the legal limits of school absenteeism. “Minors have the right and obligation to go to school. Imagine two months pass without attending: this is not justified”, points out Ramon, in relation to the students who have missed nearly two school weeks in Son Pisà, and before, at Maria Antònia Salvà. Inspection sources defend that the families' reaction “is understandable”, but emphasize that the chronic absenteeism protocol has not been activated because the minimum thresholds have not been reached. “It is not a political or discretionary decision. The educational center is obliged to act when the minimum days are exceeded. What is clear is that the concept of a ‘families' strike’ does not exist”, they explain.

For the time being, the 4th grade pupils of CEIP Son Pisà – the group assigned to Roldán as tutor – are maintaining the protest, which was initially supported by 60% of the school's students. The 'official' strike began on April 23rd, and if absences reach half of the school days in the month, the school will have to obligatorily activate the chronic absenteeism protocol, which leads to a series of actions to ensure the return to classrooms. This will be the case because, officially, there is no impediment for students to go to class.

The role of unions

The Roldán case has involved unions, divided between defending minors' rights and criticizing the Conselleria's management. SIAU has been particularly critical of the Administration and voted against the parity committees between worker representatives and the Conselleria convened at the beginning of the school year to promote a psychological evaluation of the teacher, considering that Education wanted to transfer responsibility to the union organizations. The measure was validated, but it was not applied because Roldán took a leave of absence and, subsequently, Education withdrew the mandatory medical surveillance after the teacher's judicial appeal. “It was illegal”, SIAU summarizes.

The union maintains that it is possible to reconcile the rights of all parties and calls for a joint meeting with the Ministry, the teacher, the families and the teaching staff to unblock the conflict, which it attributes to institutional inaction. “It is positive that there are opposing opinions, but there are red lines that cannot be crossed. Everyone has the right to disagree, but always with respect and common sense,” it maintains.

Firm hands

The Department of Education, for its part, has had little room to avoid conflict, beyond meetings with families, unions and with Roldán, sending teachers to supervise him, trying to reassure parents and job relocation offers that the teacher has always rejected. Recently, when asked about different issues linked to Roldán and the families' strike – which had already been going on for several days –, the Department responded briefly or in a generalized manner: “It is a delicate matter that is being continuously monitored. At present, no decision has been made”.

All this on the same day that the Spanish government announced its intention to modify the Lopivi to prevent, among other issues, teachers convicted of crimes against minors from practicing. It should be recalled that already in February 2025, the same Ministry had requested precisely this legislative change from the State. Now, once it has been officially announced, the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, has lamented that the reform will not arrive in time for next academic year.u