How will students who do not wear masks to school be punished? – Society

Whether it will be regulated and by what regulations, whether the principal has the right to deny a student who refuses to wear a mask the right to attend classes on the school premises and instruct him to follow classes from home, these are questions to which we did not receive a response from the Ministry of Education.

Education Minister Mladen Šarčević has repeatedly said that children who do not wear masks will be reprimanded and even suspended.

At the beginning of August, he announced that “special rules and regulations will be approved that will be valid in emergency situations, and that is that the student can be suspended, because if the mask is removed more frequently, it will endanger the safety of other children” .

However, a few days ago the Minister said that in all schools there is a regulation on the behavior of students in which the minor and most serious offenses of duty are clearly defined.

“If a student is warned once or twice, it is a minor injury. But if he repeated the obstructive behavior several times, it is a more serious injury. Therefore, the penalties are higher – stressed Šarčević, while several directors Those we spoke with claim that not wearing a mask as a violation does not exist in existing regulations on student behavior.

While some of the public thinks that Šarčević’s threats are a “shot in the arm”, the secretaries of the schools we spoke to point out that there is a basis in current school regulations for sanctioning students who do not adhere to the rules. measures prescribed by crisis personnel. That is, the Instruction on Measures for the Protection of the Health of Students and Employees of Elementary and Secondary Schools, adopted by the Crisis Staff, stipulates that school and non-teaching staff must wear masks during their stay at school. Crisis staff recommends that students wear a mask while at school and can only remove it when they sit on their bench and listen to lessons.

The lawyers point out that the aforementioned Crisis Staff document is binding on students, and that for its non-compliance, article 83 of the Law of Fundamentals of the Educational System, which prescribes the responsibility of students, can be applied.

This article defines in the sixth point as a serious violation of the obligation of students “behaviors that endanger their own safety or the safety of other students, teachers and school employees, at school and other activities carried out outside the school, and that the school organizes and leads to his mental injury. “

In the case of serious infractions, the school is obliged to carry out disciplinary procedures and the principal can reprimand the student, the teacher council (which also implies a reduction in the government’s rating) or expel the student from the school (only applies to high school students).

However, insiders believe that schools will not resort to such drastic punishments and that not wearing a mask will be treated as a minor violation of student obligations.

A disciplinary procedure is not required to issue a reprimand, a class teacher reprimand, or a class council reprimand, but these measures are only imposed on the student and recorded in journal notes and noted in the book from the student.

And for that to happen, schools must include in their internal act, the Regulation on the behavior of students, employees and parents, that the recommendations of crisis personnel on health protection measures are binding.

The school is obliged to inform parents that this provision is included in the Rulebook, which then provides the basis for punishing students who do not comply with the obligation to wear a mask. Lawyers say that in this way, the school protects itself from parents who refuse to let their children wear a mask while listening to classes at school.

In the previous days, the media wrote about certain groups of parents who shared a declaration form on social media, urging parents to sign that they do not want their child to wear a mask at school.

The declaration that parents must sign establishes that “teaching and non-teaching staff are prohibited from coercing, persuading, persuading or any other type of psychological pressure on the child, due to the mandatory use of protective masks during school.”

Noting that the instructions on the use of protective masks in schools are not legally binding, in a written statement that adds to the rebellion at the end he says: “I, like his father, decided that for his health due to all the negative phenomena when wearing protective masks it is best not to use it “.

The “I Live for Serbia” movement then joined the rebellion against the mask, whose members sent a request to the Ministry of Education to wear the mask on a voluntary basis.

The anti-mask advertisements provoked the ire of the teachers and the reprimands of the highest educational authorities threatened the indignation of the parents.

We asked the psychologist Marina Videnović from the Institute of Psychology at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy if the threat of punishment or the persistent warning and explanation to students why it is important to wear masks indoors is more effective.

He points out that the research confirms that we live in a country where citizens have little trust in each other and in all state institutions.

In addition, there is no dialogue, conflict of different opinions to arrive at the best solution, exchange of arguments neither at the electoral campaign level, nor in communication between teachers and students.

– Here we can notice an already established communication pattern. The Ministry makes a decision on behalf of all and for the good of all, but it does not include all stakeholders in the decision-making process because that is not how this society works. We can assume that a part of the citizens has the opinion beforehand that every decision that comes from that direction is wrong and is just waiting to attack and challenge every decision. Some have critical objections and perhaps a desire to participate in the making of a better model, but there is no way for them to get involved. That is why there is great resistance. And how does the Ministry fight resistance? Threatening with punishment. Thus, it completely closes the door to dialogue and leaves no possibility for it to get partners and for all of us to work together for the goal we all share: that our children get the most out of school, without their health being compromised. The same pattern of communication existed in the way crisis personnel functioned during the epidemic, says Videnović.

She believes that threatening adolescents with punishment for not wearing a mask is probably a “vain threat”, further reducing its effect.

– To be clear, I agree that students should wear masks and learn to protect themselves and others, but I think that the way that message was sent is not good – says Videnović.

When asked what the possible negative effects of such a message are, Videnović replies that it depends on the age, the characteristics of the students, the operation of the school, the parents …

– We can easily imagine scared lower grade students accidentally taking off their mask, so there is panic because they think they will be expelled from school. In addition, adolescents are in the developmental period when they begin to look more intensely and critically at the decisions that adults make. Again, they were not invited to think together with us adults, exchange arguments and have the right to vote on what is best for them. And this time we send them a clear message: “No, we know better than you what is best for you, and if you don’t work as they say, I will punish you” – affirms our interlocutor.

According to her, this type of argument should never be the first and basic one, in any period of a child’s development, and only in adolescence does it lose all meaning.

– We can expect teenagers to use the same communication model: “Well, just to see if you can punish me” or “Punish me, so what?” And, again, we have opposing sides where we should all be on the same side, Videnović thinks.

Students are disciplined

Marija Miletić, director of the Fourteenth Gymnasium in Belgrade, told Danas that they did not receive any recommendation from the Ministry of Education on the conduct of schools if students do not wear masks or a scale to punish them.

He points out that teachers will familiarize students with the Crisis Staff measures in the first days of school and believes that they will be respected and does not expect problems in communication between students and teachers.

Remember that visors have been purchased for students who for some reason cannot wear masks. Miletic says the students were very disciplined when they took their graduation exam in June and that they wore masks.

Support us by being a member of the Danas Readers Club

In the age of widespread tabloidization, sensationalism, and media commercialization, we have been insisting on the principles of professional and ethical journalism for more than two decades. We were banned and called, no government was kind to criticism, but nothing prevented us from informing you objectively on a daily basis. That is why we want to trust you.

Membership in the Danas Book Club for 799 dinars per month you help us stay independent and consistent with the journalism we believe in, and you receive a PDF of Tomorrow’s Danas by email every night.

Related texts: