President José Antonio Kast said his administration will tighten security measures at Chile’s schools following a stabbing attack and a separate incident in which a student was detained while trying to enter a school with a loaded firearm. Speaking at a school event in Santiago on Monday, Kast linked the response to what he described as a changed social environment and to growing concern about violence affecting students.
“We are going to have to take certain measures to protect our students,” Kast said, adding that measures previously met with resistance “now need to be viewed differently” because “society has changed.” He also said the incidents that have alarmed the country “continue to occur,” as he addressed Monday’s weapons case involving a student found with a gun.
Kast’s pledge came after a deadly attack on Friday in which one person was killed and four others were wounded. One of the victims remained hospitalized in critical condition, and the attacker remained in custody, according to the report.
On Monday, police detained a 15-year-old in Curicó—about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Santiago—after the student tried to enter a school with a loaded gun and ammunition, with the items carried in the waistband. Maj. Juan Díaz Serrano of Chile’s police force told reporters that police arrived at the scene, detained the minor, and seized the weapon, and that the student did not make threats or “pull out the weapon to intimidate any staff member or classmate.”
Kast said the incident showed that “once again, a student was found in a school with an object capable of harming other children.” He said his government would seek to implement “measures for greater control over access to schools,” without providing further details about the timing or scope.
Education Minister María Paz Arzola said her office is drafting a bill that would allow teachers to inspect students’ backpacks. Arzola said the government also will work to expedite implementation of metal detectors at schools.
Armed attacks remain rare in Chile, but high schools and universities have a history of student activism, including major confrontations during the 2011 and 2019 social upheavals. In late 2024, more than 30 students were wounded after an explosion caused by homemade firebombs intended for use during a student protest in Santiago, and in May three students were shot and wounded in a shooting inside a school in the Bío Bío region, described by authorities as the country’s first school shooting.
The announcement also comes as Chile continues to grapple with the fallout from the Friday stabbing and the Monday attempt to bring a gun onto school grounds.