The srategy that saved a mayor's image. The violent eviction of the children os de Picacho School

Abstract

The Picacho school’s students were evicted from one of the rooms besides the Mayor’s office.  The students locked themselves up in that room to demand gym teachers for the school.  As a result of the eviction, 15 children ended up at the hospital, some of them had to stay at the hospital under observation for three days.  This was a shocking event that kept the media attention for three weeks.  Given the proximity of the local elections, this event became a precedent of the public relations that are put in place in cases of presumed political corruption such as the ones keeping the media attention these days.  In this case, it was obvious for the emitters of the message (speakers) that the public was aware of the gravity of the actions attributed to the politicians.  These actions were sustained by indisputable proofs that had been shown to the public.  To reduce the damages on the politicians’ reputation and on the reputation of their political parties, the speakers tried to provide data and information that made the politicians’ actions look less reprehensible.  This event took place in 1986.  At that time, Vigo was going through an industrial reorganization and the streets were the arena chosen by workers to demand a job.  In this context, the acts of persuasive communication used by the Mayor and his entourage have been analyzed to determine the techniques used in this case, how they used these techniques, their effectiveness, and their similarities with the standard proceedings.