Mexican parents clean reopening schools where thieves took even toilet doors

Wiping away dust from bookshelves and mopping grimy floors, teachers and parents across Mexico are sprucing up vandalised schools ahead of the nationwide reopening on June 7.

Mexico has kept state schools shut since March 2020, when students and teachers abandoned them after the coronavirus pandemic triggered the first nationwide lockdown.

Since then, between 40% to 50% of all Mexican schools have reported vandalism or theft, according to trade union officials.

"We come to support the school so that everything is clean for the return of children to classes," said Rosa Miron, one . . .