The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Bosnia and Herzegovina entity Republika Srpska (RS) on the occasion of yesterday’s tragic event in the Belgrade elementary school, when a student shot and killed eight students and a security guard, increased the presence of police officers near elementary and secondary schools in order to take preventive action.
The head of the Public Relations Department of the MIA of the RS, Mirna Miljanović, emphasized that there is no reason to be alarmed.
According to her, events like what happened in Belgrade are usually a trigger for a reaction elsewhere, which is why the situation is being monitored and the increased presence of police officers will be organized in the future as well.
“We don’t expect anything, but simply to be there, to be present,” Miljanović said.
According to her, the police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS have continuously been undertaking a whole series of activities for years through various projects, such as “School policeman”, “Protection of children from dangers on the Internet”, “Prevention of peer violence” and others, and in the coming period they will be further strengthened.
“We have ‘school policemen’ whether in the school itself or, depending on the municipality, those who visit the schools, have contacts with the schools and are at the disposal of the teaching staff and students, and there is very good cooperation. This issue in itself places the responsibility of both schools and of everything else that is happening because unfortunately, when it comes to the police, it seems to me to be too late,” said the head of the Department for Public Relations of the MIA of the RS.
She added that the MIA is in contact with all competent institutions in the RS that deal with children, education and growing up, all in order to avoid events like this one in Belgrade in the future, and an even more serious multidisciplinary approach to establish long-term systemic solutions for protection children.
Eight children and a security guard were killed yesterday in an armed attack at the “Vladislav Ribnikar” Elementary School in Vračar. Six students and one female teacher were wounded, and the attacker K.K., a seventh-grade student at that school, was arrested after calling the police himself.
