Brawl disrupts AI ‘mega-class’ at Mineirão with 30,000 students

The ‘mega-class’ of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which brought together about 30,000 students from the state education network at Mineirão, in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, was halted after a widespread brawl among students in the stands on Wednesday morning (19/11). Videos taken at the scene show several groups of students fighting while the crowd chanted ‘fight, fight!’. The event was attended by Governor Romeu Zema (Novo) and Vice-Governor Mateus Simões (PSD).
The confusion reportedly started when the event’s emcees mentioned the major rivals of Minas Gerais football, Atlético and Cruzeiro. They allegedly asked the students: ‘Who is Galo? Who is Cruzeiro?’. However, the joke did not go down well. The real motivation behind the fights is still unknown.
In a matter of minutes, the Mineirão stadium turned into a stage for the widespread brawl, with water cups flying, delaying the start of the class scheduled for 10 a.m. The course was resumed around 11:30 a.m.
Zema was ‘happy’ to promote AI event
Moments before the confusion took over the Mineirão stands, Governor Romeu Zema commented on his happiness to promote the event. ‘This will be the world’s largest AI class, which reinforces the commitment of the Education Department to digital teaching,’ he said.
Zema also mentioned that he hoped students from Minas Gerais state schools would be ‘a reference in Brazil’. ‘Since the beginning of my administration, we have replaced the computers in all schools – which looked more like museum pieces –, renovated the units, and we want the students to be a reference in Brazil, both in elementary and high school education. We have advanced in the Enem assessment and will continue to progress. We have made record investments in education, knowing it is a long-term project. Minas Gerais is the state that has made the most progress in literacy, and over the next 10 years, we will be even better than we are today. This class is a milestone for education,’ he celebrated.
However, when the students started fighting, both Zema and Vice-Governor Mateus Simões had already left the platform.
AI ‘mega-class’ aimed to break a world record
About 200 schools from the Greater BH Metropolitan Region left their institutions to attend the event at Mineirão stadium in Pampulha. The action, promoted by the State Department of Education in partnership with Google Gemini, aimed to enter the Guinness Book with the record for the largest class of its kind. In total, the ‘mega-class’ brought together students from 11 cities in the Greater BH Metropolitan Region to learn about technological content taught by Google professionals. In a statement, the Mineirão stadium informed that the event’s operation is the responsibility of the Minas Gerais government. The stadium only provided the venue.