Fourteen years old and a theft at the school

First, lower the temperature with the law in hand: the penalties of the Criminal Code — including aggravated theft in a school (Art. 226, Ley 74-25) — are for adults. A 14-year-old student answers before the criminal justice system for adolescents (Arts. 223 and 225, Ley 136-03 — the Code for the Protection of Children and Adolescents), whose declared purpose is education, rehabilitation and social inclusion (Art. 326, Ley 136-03). That is why “a firm hand with the full weight of the law” and “settle it at home” are wrong in opposite directions. Option a follows the route the rule has already drawn: acts of adolescents aged 13 to 17 that amount to offences are referred to the Fiscalía de Niñez y Adolescencia (Art. 30, Ordenanza 05-2023 — the MINERD school-coexistence rules), theft is a very serious disciplinary breach running in parallel (Art. 23, Ordenanza 05-2023), and expulsion is prohibited as a sanction during the school year, except in situations that endanger integrity and safety, and even then only when assessed jointly with the school’s internal and external bodies (Art. 27, Ordenanza 05-2023) — never as the immediate, unilateral decision by the leadership that option b proposes. The most serious element in the case is the adult: using a minor in an activity that harms their morality or impairs their development is exploitation, and whoever does so is additionally liable to the ordinary penalties for the act the adolescent committed as a result (Art. 184 and its Párrafo, Ley 74-25); and if the adult also accompanied him in committing it, the penalty in its own right is five to ten years of prisión mayor (greater imprisonment) (Art. 219, Ley 74-25). Only the prosecutor’s office can pull that thread; options c and d leave it loose, free to look for the next boy. Throughout this process, the student is never named a “criminal”: he is an adolescent in conflict with the criminal law, who remains a student of the school. Question for the group: how do we protect a student’s school trajectory while his case moves through the specialised justice system?