Serbian government building (Beta/Nenad Petrovic)
Several dozen teachers belonging to the Independent Teachers' Union of Serbia delivered their demands for preventing school violence to the Serbian government on May 8 with a deadline of seven days to meet them.
The proposed measures include suspension of students exhibiting repeated bad behavior, disallowing anonymous tips to the education inspection as they have historically been abused to pressure teachers, and adding protections for teachers and strict penalties for attacks on employees to the criminal code.
At the teacher protest in front of the Education Ministry building, Union president Dusan Kokot announced that the demands would stand for one week, and that the union would make further decisions accordingly if they are not met by that time.
The rally in front of the ministry, under the slogan Stop Violence, began with a minute of silence for all victims of mass shootings last week and for "all victims the public sees every day."
Kokot said that the resignation of Education Minister Branko Ruzic did not remove the problems, as "they did not come with him," and that the Union demanded "the political will to solve education workers' problems."
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