Ten months have passed since the tragedies in the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School and the villages of Duboni and Mali Orašje, and recently there have been incidents in two schools. Namely, one student brought a knife to the "Vladislav Ribnikar" school, and a sixth-grade student brought an ax to the "Heroj Janko Chmelik" Elementary School in Stara Pazova.
In May of last year, immediately after the tragedies, measures were introduced to better control weapons and improve safety in schools and among young people. A little later last year, before the beginning of the school year, various regulations were adopted with the aim of strengthening the educational role of the school and the educational system for the prevention and response to violence. And the Law on the Basics of the Education System was also amended.
What of the measures have been implemented so far, how effective were they, but also where is society now and what has it learned in the meantime?
The Belgrade Center for Security Policy conducted an Analysis of the measures introduced after the tragedies that occurred on May 3 and 4. The conclusion of the analysis showed that the introduced measures were motivated by political interests to satisfy the public and that they were not adopted by professionals from the field of public security, justice or education. Because of this, some could not be implemented, such as banning access to the Dark Web, gun control in the short term. Other measures, on the other hand, are unsustainable for the system, namely the presence of the police in schools, testing students for psychoactive substances.
The author of this analysis and associate at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, Dušan Stanković, in an interview with "Vreme", points out that the common problem for all measures is that they did not bring effects in terms of reducing the number of armed incidents in Serbia, reducing the number of incidents in schools and reported violations.
"We are still witnessing that. There are no official data, but what we have and some parameters we can monitor testify that these trends are constant. It means that there is no reduction", Stanković points out.
In that analysis, which was published at the end of December last year, it is also written that most of the measures have not been implemented, that for some it is necessary to change the law, such as tightening the penalties for acts related to weapons or reducing the age limit when it comes to criminal responsibility. However, the research and experience of other countries do not support the fact that a harsher penal policy would solve the problems of violence or carrying weapons.
It is questionable, the analysis states, and that is why there are currently no campaigns that would educate citizens on the topic of the dangers of weapons and how to dispose of them. Measures for the safety of young people were more declarative (harsher penal policy) or formal in nature (establishment of councils and working groups). The only measure that was immediately implemented and visible to citizens was the presence of the police in schools.
After the tragedies in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) announced that police officers were deployed to all 1.800 schools across Serbia.
Stanković explains that this measure was immediately implemented, but that it was never officially adopted by the Government of Serbia. That is, there is no act that regulates the presence of the MUP in schools, but the police were only told that they must provide them in some way. "The problem with the police officer in the school is that we have no evidence that it is effective in terms of reducing the number of incidents in schools or improving safety. Various incidents continue to occur. It is possible that some of the children, some of the school staff or some of the parents feel safer, but it is possible - and we know this from the experience of other countries - that when the police are in the schools, they simply know that something is wrong", says Stanković .
He thinks that the government's intention was to react as soon as possible and calm the public who were upset after these tragedies, and to show that they are working on something that can be seen further through the presence of the police in schools.
"If you ask professionals from schools or the police, they will tell you that these measures are not good and that the police should not be in schools, as this is why we have an increase in street crime - resources are simply not distributed properly," says Stanković.
He says that some measures such as gun control within three months, as originally announced, were not implemented within that period. That's why they still last. "This is proof that those measures were not brought by someone who really deals with it," says Stanković.
MEASURES DO NOT AFFECT THE CAUSES OF VIOLENCE
The results of the public opinion survey cited in the BCBP analysis show that the number of citizens who are not satisfied with the measures is 12 percent higher than the number of those who are. When looking at the period of six months after the adoption of the measures, the satisfaction of citizens seriously decreases - 44 percent of them are satisfied with the measures, while 56 percent are not.
Stanković says that when public opinion surveys were conducted during the fall of 2022 and 2023, they noticed that citizens feel less safe in relation to the environment in relation to the year 2022. Under environment, they asked questions about feeling safe at home, in the neighborhood where they live and in Serbia in general.
Stanković states that the measures related to youth and schools have been implemented to a lesser extent, and to a lesser extent have been adopted; out of a total of fifteen measures, most are related to weapons, most are repressive, and almost none are directed at the causes of violence or only focus on some risk factors.
HOW MUCH IS THEN THOUGHT ABOUT PREVENTION??
Psychologist Ana Mirković for "Vreme" reminds of the ideas that were discussed in August that from September "I don't know what kind of revolution in education" will take place, and that children will be taught values, empathy, tolerance...
"As a mother of two schoolchildren, I know that practically nothing happened. Those were two initial weeks of filling out a form, and even for that form, many educators did not have patience because they probably realized that what they were doing did not make much sense, so they switched to regular school programs", says Ana Mirković.
He goes on to explain that something that has been set up for a very long time on the wrong foundations cannot be fixed in two weeks of some workshops. Namely, it is necessary to stop everything and re-evaluate all processes of education, upbringing, support, parenting and the role of the media.
"First, a clear intention should be defined, and then a clear plan should be adopted as to how we should go about these changes. It seems to me that at this moment there is no will, no idea, no intention for something like that to happen", points out Ana Mirković.
How essential was prevention through these measures adopted in May? Stanković says that, unfortunately, very little thought was given, and that the measures certainly worked to prevent some risk factors - such as the presence of the police in schools - and perhaps prevented potential incidents. However, there was no strategic work on the prevention and prevention of violence, and there were examples of some of the members of the working groups resigning from them because they did not deal with the causes of violence.
Stanković reminds that there is a National Platform for the Prevention of Violence "Cuvam te". It includes children - as victims or perpetrators, and it contains materials that can be said to go in the direction of preventing violence, but it is not known how much that platform is used.
"There is no strategic approach regarding the regulation of violence in the media, we have not seen that. There was a measure related to that, but as far as we know, it was not implemented at all. It is about tightening the sanctions for media service providers who publish violent content", says Stanković.
photo: marko dragoslavić / fonetDISSATISFACTION WITH UNDERTAKINGS: Parents' protest in front of "Ribnikar"
"SOLUTION"- METAL DETECTOR
When an ax was found in a student's backpack, the director of that school, Janko Havran, told RTS that in addition to the school policeman, it is necessary for schools to have private security, metal detectors, as well as authorized persons who will search students at the entrance to the school.
To that, Ana Mirković says that as a mother, the idea of children entering school like they enter a plane or a police station is inadmissible.
"School should be a place for education, but also for socializing and first love, for practicing life and playing a lot. If you already have a metal detector at the door, it instills 'fear in your bones' and changes the very perception and atmosphere in the school", says Ana Mirković.
She adds that prevention is a much better way, but it requires the willingness to invest in it for years, that is, that the result can only be brought by collective engagement towards changing the climate in society.
HOW MANY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN AND ARE BEING THINKED OF?
Based on all this, says Stanković, it could not be said that children were worked with at all. There were attempts through the platform or through mobile teams, but these remained individual cases.
"A lot still needs to be done, such as increasing the number of teaching staff in schools, people who will deal directly with children and their development, improving the role of teachers, systematic education of parents and regulation of the media", concludes Stanković.
At the end of the conversation, Ana Mirković describes the situation she noticed on the street. A mother and her five-year-old son pass by "Bitef", and he asks: "Mom, if we were to go to the show together, do we need two tickets?". She doesn't answer. The boy repeats the same question a second and a third time, but remains unanswered.
Our interlocutor says: "Here, I am now walking and thinking about what that child thinks in general about the idea of not only going to the theater, but in general communicating with his mother and sharing information with her when she shows no interest. You know, when you repeat one message three times, you think: 'God, I'm talking nonsense, this is a completely meaningless message'. And somewhere in that moment, children stop communicating. Therefore, we all have to change: parents, teachers, media, politicians and citizens, we have to become different in order to be able to talk about a society in which we have zero tolerance for violence".
