Czech President Pavel condemns bullying in the schools and meets with Ukrainian girl who was spat on by a schoolmate
Czech President Petr Pavel has generally condemned bullying and humiliation in the schools and has received Polina, a schoolgirl from Ukraine who was spat upon by her schoolmates during a field trip, at Prague Castle. Pavel also expressed appreciation for the parents of the bullies apologizing to the girl and to the school for having solved the situation.
“I condemn bullying, humiliation and violence in the schools in general. In the case of a child who has been forced to leave her country and her friends because of the war and to whom we have offered a safe haven, such behavior is especially shameful,” Pavel said. “I appreciate the reaction of the school and the parents, as well as the fact that an apology was made. The scarring of the soul is still there, though. Each and every child deserves safety, acceptance, and respect. We should all focus on what we can do so these values will be strengthened in our society and discrimination, violence and the feeling of exclusion will decrease.”
According to a video published online, the schoolchildren shouted abuse at the girl and spat on her, among other things. Czech Education Minister Mikuláš Bek (Mayors and Independents – STAN) also responded, posting beneath the footage on social media that “bullying in any form is absolutely unacceptable” and calling on teachers to emphatically take on this phenomenon in their classrooms.
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN) tweeted that “Spitting in the face of a child… is the same as spitting in the face of our whole civilization. Children just copy the behavior modeled for them. This demonstratively illustrates how some of those models are sometimes cruel and stupid.”
The bullying happened during a field trip taken by the pupils of a primary school in Opočno in the Rychnov district. A group of boys from another class in the school, not the girl’s own classmates, assaulted her during the trip.
According to lawyer Petr Němec, the boys have apologized for their behavior and the girl and her mother met their parents in the presence of teachers from both classes. “We very much thank the school, the parents of the boys, and the boys themselves for solving this problem. The boys have apologized, and from the meeting with their parents we have learned that this is not anything they would have heard at home and they do not support it,” the lawyer tweeted.
“This was just childish stupidity that will probably not be repeated. The boys also have friends who are Ukrainian. If the girl had worn glasses, or had red hair, they would have shouted abuse about wearing glasses and having such hair. Everybody shook hands, laughed, and this problem is probably over. The school has a system for addressing bullying, and it worked. Everybody listened to their parents,” the lawyer added.
The girl’s mother, Maria Butkivska, described how the bullying was resolved a bit differently for news server Deník N. “I wanted to meet with the boys’ parents. I wanted to hear what they had to say, to understand what their opinions are of this matter, and also to hear an apology from them. However, during our first meeting at the school, the teachers didn’t want to understand that. They would have preferred to have closed the entire problem at the level of the school,” she told the news server.
“Things were then set in motion, though. They aided me in meeting with the parents, my daughter and I have heard an apology from them. We even found common ground. I believe that is the most important thing – that we understood each other,” Butkivska.
