Srdjan Vukadinovic, a sociologist from Tuzla, commented on the crime that happened in Belgrade on Wednesday and warned that this event showed that the previous social models have failed and that a new approach is needed.
Vukadinovic emphasizes the seriousness of the crime that happened, and that it was committed by a 13-year-old boy, and emphasizes that this is an alarm for the whole society, which with its models lost the battle against something that was called peer violence.
“This is not peer violence, this is a classic crime. If we were to move on from that definition, then it would also be peer violence if someone over the age of 50 does it to his peer. When it comes to acts like this, there can be no talk of peer violence because it is neither insults nor psychological abuse, but a large number of children lost their lives,” says Vukadinovic.
He emphasizes that both family and society lost the battle and did not understand that this is a new world that is changing and that it is a consequence of globalization in which nothing is the same as it was twenty years ago.
“Today, 14-year-old children are not at the same level of knowledge as they were twenty years ago. Today, 10-12-year-old children are certainly at that level of knowledge. Social networks create their lives and everything revolves around social networks. This is the influence of some artificial intelligence, which we don’t understand,” Vukadinovic said.
He explains that the fact that the boy had access to a shooting range is not a key element for this crime, and that by connecting to the world’s knowledge system he could learn how to disassemble weapons, how to aim and how to shoot.
“The discovery of the school’s schematics shows that he saw it all as a game and that he saw all his colleagues whom he killed as individuals who have another life. This is certainly the effect of uncensored social networks. Comments of his peers who glorify him as an idol appeared and we see that a school in Vojvodina was closed because of this. His name will become a symbol for everyone who wants 15 minutes of fame through social networks. 15 minutes of fame is not achieved on the basis of education, but on the reality that has taken over our lives and that dominates lives,” warns Vukadinovic.
In particular, he points out that the problem is that he is an excellent student who went to competitions and that we should not get over it quickly.
“The least that should have happened in this situation was for the President of the State of Serbia to resign because the most serious crime in the last century in Serbia and in the region took place in his country. If something happens, not in the region, but in the European Union (EU), it can easily go to us and happen here,” Vukadinovic pointed out.
He warns that the family has lost the battle with its models and will lose it more and more, that it is no longer a traditional family and that parents will have less and less time for their children.
“Some new education system is entering our lives and the lives of these children. It should be understood as a change in the worlds in which we lived and in which such accidents can happen. We are already talking about American values, instead of some value system on knowledge, education. System is being developed in which it can happen that someone kills three or four children, as in March in Hampshire, that someone kills about seventy students and many other things,” Vukadinovicpointed out.
As one of the possible models of the fight against such events, he points out that schools and ministries should look at the situation where teachers do or do not have empathy for students.
“Peer violence is something else, and this is a classic crime. A complete change of work methods is needed when it comes to society because it is obvious that the previous methods have lost the battle and this crime is a step or two ahead of what society is doing. This is a situation which is a serious warning, we don’t need talk about this or that Government, how international representatives intervene, the electoral law, or other things. This is a key problem of society in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) because this can very easily spill over into our schools and be done by one of our children, and no one wants that, because after this from Belgrade, we are all traumatized,” concluded Vukadinovic, Klix.ba reports.
