A Hidden Toll: Paula’s Battle with Abuse at a Barcelona School

In a Barcelona classroom that day, a quiet, troubling pattern resurfaced during ESO’s third year at the Spotless Marists. It was not new in its existence, just more serious in its impact. It also stirred Paula to confront mourning she could no longer hide at home. The 1999-2000 academic year had ended their classes for the afternoon, around five o’clock, as Paula walked with her peers through a school corridor, her backpack heavy with the day’s routine. They ducked into an empty classroom, and in that moment someone grabbed her, pulling her into darkness. It involved peers from her own class, and the scene unfolded in a corner as one of them began to lie down. They clutched her, and others touched her, forcing a narrative she tried to resist. Paula recalls this in a rare interview with El Perif3dico, conducted in a Barcelona cafe more than twenty years later. The assailants surrounded her, hiding the abuse within the folds of routine clothing, and she was told she provoked it. This is how she remembers the moment.