A Korean nun has been accused of administering excessive physical punishment on four teen-age boys at the Sisters of Mary boarding school for the underprivileged in Acatlán de Juárez outside Guadalajara.
A criminal complaint has been filed and the matter is being investigated by the Fiscalia General del Estado (Attorney General’s Office).
According to the police report, the boys, aged 16 and 17, had been drinking alcohol after playing truant from the school, known as la Villa de los Niños.
In their declaration, the boys said they were hit with an electric cable by Ana Michaela Shin, a nun from South Korea, who has been identified as the mother superior.
The criminal complaint included a report from Zapopan medical services confirming that the boys were covered with lesions to their legs, thighs and buttocks, with some of the bruises up to 25 centimeters in length. Photographs appear to corroborate their statement.
The complaint also noted that after their punishment, the boys were expelled from the school. They were asked to leave after dark without their guardians having been notified, according to the FIND Foundation, an NGO that is giving legal advice to the boys and their families.
A spokesperson for FIND criticized local welfare organizations for being unaware of the situation and feared that other boys at Villa de los Niños had been similarly abused but had not made complaints.
The Villa de Los Niños “boystown” is a second home for 2,000 boys from low-income families throughout Mexico. It opened in 1998 by the Sisters of Mary from a blueprint of the order’s founder, Aloysius Schwartz, a U.S. priest from Washington, D.C.
The students receive a broad academic grounding in math, science, Spanish and English instruction, and also receive specialized training to ensure employment opportunities await them after graduation. Tuition is free and enrollment is restricted to the country’s neediest children. As a nonprofit, the school relies on public and private donations from in and outside of Mexico.
The four students who filed the criminal complaint are reportedly all from Mexico City and were only a few weeks away from their technical high school graduations when they were expelled.