The acting principal of the Fifth Belgrade High School, Danka Nešović, locked the school on Thursday due to the "threatened safety" of students and employees. President Vučić assessed the loud protests with which the students saw off Nešović as "one of the most gruesome testimonies of today's Serbia".
Reacting to dissatisfaction of teachers and students of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium because of its afforestation, the acting director of that school, Danka Nešović, locked the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium on Thursday (February 27) and sent a notice teachers that all students and teachers whom she did not invite to participate in the work of the school's working bodies are prohibited from entering the building.
The loud protests with which the students escorted Nešović out of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium the previous day, on Wednesday, were recorded on a video that immediately went viral on social networks, and which was not resisted by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who assessed that the video was "one of the most gruesome testimonies of today's Serbia", which shows "the terror that the students of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium carry out against the school principal".
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What does the Decision say?
In a notice to the teachers of the Fifth Belgrade High School, which "Vreme" has access to, Nešović explained her decision with the events "which led to the intervention of internal affairs authorities, emergency services and other competent services, and which resulted in an injured student, as well as health problems for two female colleagues and the school director".
He further announces that until further notice the school will not be open for either teachers or students, unless Nešović personally invites them to participate in the working bodies at the school.
"When the conditions are met for the safe stay and work of students and employees at the school, the school will continue with regular activities, about which you will receive an official announcement," she adds in the message.
What preceded the Decision?
Vesna Rašković, professor of history at the Fifth Belgrade High School, explains for "Vreme" what preceded such a decision by Danka Nešović.
"On Wednesday, a meeting of all employees was held, and when the session of the Teachers' Council was supposed to be held, we announced that we did not want to attend that session, because we have suspended classes since January 20," says Rašković.
She states that the students then greeted the teachers with applause and chanted "Peta is ours" and "We will not give you Petu" and the like. He adds that Nešović stayed with four teachers in the assembly room, and that the other teachers went to other floors of the school.
"One of the colleagues got sick, and one boy, chanting and jumping, hit his head on the door in the school hall, after which the ambulance was called. There is footage of the EMS medical staff taking out the director who locks the door. Vučić posted that video on Instagram, where he portrayed it as lynching, physical violence against the school principal. He uses it as a corpus delicti, that everything that is happening was caused by the students attacking and harassing the director mentally and physically," says Rašković.
There were two plainclothes policemen at the school
Regarding the allegations from the Decision sent to the teachers by Nešović that "there was an intervention by the internal affairs authorities", Rašković says that she did not see any policemen, but that "a rumor spread" that two plainclothes policemen entered the school and presented themselves with identification.
"I didn't see any intervention, nor does anyone know about it." I think they just came in and went through the school. They were definitely in the school, but if there was some kind of intervention, if they were defending Nešović or suppressing us, I have no knowledge of that, and I would certainly have heard that something like that had happened," says Rašković.
There was no violence.
And Jelena Alikalfić, a member of the Parents' Council of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium, confirmed and described the events in a similar way.
"After the teachers refused to participate in the session of the Teachers' Council, a slightly larger group of students gathered in front of the assembly hall and greeted the teachers." One boy fell and injured himself, no one put any pressure on him and there was no violence," says Alikalfić, adding that Nešović wrote the statement in such a way that the mention of the injured student can be interpreted differently.
And Alikalfić states that the teachers of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium have been in blockade since January 20, and that around then the former director resigned, and that on February 24, the Ministry of Education appointed acting director Danka Nešović.
Alikalfić also states that the ambulance arrived at the school around 13 pm because a female teacher complained of health problems, and that when the ambulance team took care of that teacher, Nešović locked the office and left the school with the medical team.
"On Thursday morning, the teachers received a notification about the ban on entering the school. The school is locked and it is the first time that something like this has happened, because during the suspension of classes there were no incidents or security risks that Nešović refers to. However, she believes that due to security reasons, she must not let teachers and students go to school, which has absolutely nothing to do with the real situation," says Alikalfić.
She states that teachers and parents will try to check whether the decision made by Nešović is in accordance with the law, and that they will try to change it through legal means, because such a decision is not in anyone's interest.
He also adds that Nešović has scheduled a meeting of the School Board for Thursday evening, so that decision will be discussed at that board as well, if it takes place.
"Vučić thinks that we want to overthrow the government"
Commenting on Aleksandar Vučić's post, professor Vesna Rašković says that his thesis is that the professors "took the children in and manipulated them, that the children were misled and abused."
"I don't know how we abuse them." I guess he thinks we want to overthrow the government. It is noticeable how he talks differently now, that the students are sometimes right, but that the professors are the ones who led them, seduced them and give them instructions, and that the students would not behave like that if there were no 'evil professors,'" says Rašković.
She points out that everyone in the schools is waiting for classes to return to normal, but that the teachers are not responsible for that, because the government should solve the problems.
"My opinion is that if they take down Peta - they've taken down everything that's going on." The fifth Belgrade high school has a reputation for being a school that was constantly on strike. Since 1996, I have been working in Peta Belgrade and until 2001, I did not hold a single 45-minute class. We have the epithet of a rebel school that always jumped out when there were big social struggles for better education, the state and society. I do not underestimate any school, but the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium is an institution with its 120 years of existence. We are the nursery of the intellectual elite in the country," says Rašković.
Asked what she knows about the acting principal who locked their school, Rašković says:
"She introduced herself to us at a meeting where all employees were present and read her resume. She worked as an English teacher and tourist guide. She was the acting director of the Construction and Technical School from July 2024 to January of this year."
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