The seniors of the Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium decided on Friday to begin a 24-hour blockade after the newly appointed acting principal issued a notice to the teaching staff a day earlier, stating that teachers and students were prohibited from entering the school until further notice, except by her invitation.
The students have now spent three nights in the school, and in the past few days, as N1’s reporter reminds, they have been mentioned in tabloid media and even by the president.
Senior student Jana Đukić states that they “strongly condemn the way they are being portrayed in the media.”
“We believe that this is a distortion of the truth and the situation. We exercised our right to protest. We opposed the appointment of a principal sent by the ministry who is not suitable for working in our school and has never worked in a gymnasium before. We came to support our teachers, and calling us terrorists and hooligans just because we protested against something is not okay,” she says.
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They plan to continue the 24-hour blockade until their demand is met: the ministry must dismiss the acting principal.
“We want someone from among our teachers to be appointed. The last three days have been peaceful, without incidents. We will remain in blockade until she is dismissed,” Đukić states.
Senior Isidora Jovanović says that “it is not pleasant to have a label put on you, especially as students, branding us as terrorists who threaten safety in the school.”
“We have distanced ourselves from any claims that we committed any violence against the acting principal, that we are collaborating with teachers, or that we were forced to commit violence against anyone,” she says.
A charity event is being organized at the Fifth Gymnasium in cooperation with the Third Gymnasium and the Mathematical Gymnasium today from 1 PM to 5 PM.
“We had been planning this bazaar for a long time, and even though our blockade is happening now, it won’t stop us from organizing a humanitarian event. There will be various stalls—we had to carefully select from all the applicants—cakes, handmade crafts, music, coffee brewing, and we will have special guests. The money will be raised for the Jedro Foundation, which was founded by parents of five boys suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy,” she explains.
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Source: N1, Foto: FoNet