Amendments to the Criminal Code, those who attack can be sentenced to prison employed in education and health or social protection institutions. This fulfills one of the requirements of educational workers to protect their integrity, honor and ensure smooth work. The adoption of the law and its implementation are, however, two different things, RTS reminds.
Because of a bet of 30 euros, a student slapped a teacher in front of other students at the technical school in Mladenovac. In Trstenik, students slipped off the chair of the English teacher, who was seriously injured. In Bačka Palanka, a student beat a practical teacher before retirement. Unfortunately, the list of attacks on teachers does not end there.
The only thing left for the education employees was to suspend classes, strike and take to the streets as a sign of protest. In order to protect integrity, honor and ensure smooth work, educators repeatedly appealed to the relevant ministry and the Government of Serbia.
Penalties from six months to five years
Their requests were finally accepted, at least in terms of amending the Criminal Code.
"If a person in education or his family is attacked, he will be punished with imprisonment from three months to three years." If a minor injury is caused to an employee or members of his family, the punishment is from six months to five years. If a serious injury is inflicted on an employee or members of his family, the punishment is from one to eight years," explains Milorad Antic from the Forum of Secondary Vocational Schools.
Fines are also provided for offenders, but whether they will be imposed depends not only on the court, but on the school administration, which has so far, as it turned out, tried and succeeded in covering up the offenses in many cases.
For three years now, teachers have been demanding changes to the Criminal Code for an obvious reason - they do not feel safe in the workplace.
The representatives of the education union agreed with the draft amendments to the Criminal Code at the meetings held half a year ago. Earlier, educators demanded stricter punishments for attacks on teachers, i.e. amendments to the Criminal Code, which would introduce an attack on an educator as a separate criminal offense, which was not the case until now.
Protest due to violence in schools
Representatives of several educational unions in Serbia protested in mid-May due to violence in schools.
In about 700 schools throughout Serbia, classes were suspended, and in other schools, classes took place abbreviated. The reason for this was the protest of educators due to violence in schools. Not only because of the incident that happened at the "Gymnasium" in Belgrade, where the professor was injured while trying to separate the students, but because of everything that happened in the last year.
Education workers gathered on the streets of Belgrade with the request to amend the Criminal Code in order to provide criminal legal protection for all employees in education. The protest was followed by a meeting with representatives of the Government of Serbia and it was agreed to amend the Criminal Code as soon as possible.
Mirjana Gašić, spokesperson for the Union of Education Workers' Union of Serbia and professor of Serbian language and literature, told Vreme that this change in legal regulations would equate a school employee with the position currently held by lawyers, which is listed in the current Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia and implies measures ranging from fines to prison sentences of up to eight years for violators of legal provisions.
"Thus, property, family and the employees themselves in education are protected from various forms of harassment or violent behavior of individuals", pointed out Gašić.
She added that such a solution, when it is adopted, will be a good and constructive step towards returning the education system to where it belongs, but that in no way means that it should stop there.
"It is just the beginning that restores faith that the state takes care of the key areas of its foundation and its future," emphasized Gašić.
More and more violence
She presented that, in general, violence from television screens, political clashes and from "new cultural patterns" was transferred to school, but also that students carry the model of behavior from their families and transfer it to their work environment.
She explained that in addition to a large number of students and parents who are fully committed to the education and training system, there are those who are very loud and proud, but few in number.
"That's how we get to the 'Gymnasium' and the skirmish between the students in which the professor of the Third Belgrade Gymnasium was seriously injured," says Gašić. "This event is a vivid representation of the position of an educator in society. A teacher dies - in an attempt to calm a violent situation, following exactly the protocols that were sent to him a few months earlier, to act according to them. A paradox – but very picturesque and precisely accurate”.
