Bojanić Lalović: Schools are not safe places, as a society we have failed in the fight against peer violence

The life-threatening wounding of a student in the courtyard of the "Niko Rolović" Gymnasium in Bar confronted us with another devastating truth that schools are not safe places and that as a society we have failed in the fight against peer violence, Zoja Bojanić Lalović, MP from the Democratic Party, announced today. Socialist Party (DPS) in the Parliament of Montenegro.

The prosecutor of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office ordered detention of up to 18 hours for a juvenile (AK) suspected of having committed the criminal offense of attempted murder in the courtyard of the "Niko Rolović" Gymnasium, where he inflicted life-threatening injuries on a student of that school DM (72).

"Even before this case, we noted that the number of cases of peer violence in schools had increased, but apart from short-term response to individual cases, nothing was done to systematically solve this issue both through professional institutions and social services, and through educational programs, but also through other means of support in the prevention of peer violence. Imposing educational measures that do not produce results, punitive policies that are not adequate for bullies, preventive measures that are reduced to a mere form, and we have come to the endangered life of a young man," Bojanić Lalović pointed out in a statement. .

She added that these and similar forms of behavior occur under the influence of unwanted social circumstances.

"In the public space, the language of hatred and intolerance, exclusivity and discrimination is used more and more often, so it becomes almost normal and merged with reality that a university professor announces a civil war or that one of the officials causes racial and national hatred with his speeches. All this has the worst consequences unstable and unsafe space in which our young people live," said Bojanić Lalović.

In her words, "value confusions and a moral vacuum have occurred in the system of values, so that young people in a critical phase of their development face numerous challenges to which society as it is cannot provide answers".

"And the most difficult thing we are facing is that school and education have lost their former authority. As a society, we have degraded the school, and violence has become the standard of life. It is true that we are all responsible for such a situation, but we must also start by determining individual responsibility, in order to to make the school a safe place and to return it to its educational role, and enable healthy development for young people," concluded Bojanić Lalović.