Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Wednesday, commenting on the situation in the Krapinske Toplice Elementary School, that it was sad that parents were using their child to propagate their ideas, and that such behaviour could prompt others to do things that were not right. Pročitaj više

He was talking to the press about the parents of an eighth-grader who refuse to let him go to school wearing a mask, despite talks with social services.

Fuchs said that what made it worse was that some people continued to assemble outside the school, protesting against mask-wearing and supporting the parents of that boy.

“It’s all a very sad situation, that children are being used to propagate one’s own views and ideas,” he said.

Fuchs said 26 protesters were charged with a misdemeanour yesterday and that one was arrested today for refusing to show police their ID.

“I hope this will stop because it’s really a very, very bad situation,” Fuchs said, adding that such behaviour “can cause some other improper and unfortunate acts of behaviour.”

He said that during an outdoor parent-teacher meeting at a school in Zagreb, a parent under the influence of alcohol stuck a pocket knife into a table, saying, “If you can’t solve the situation, solve it like this.”

We can’t say that the two occurrences are related, but such behaviour in public might make someone else do things that are not alright, Fuchs said, but added that he was confident the situation would not escalate “into something bigger.”

He said there were children trying to copy the behaviour of the Krapinske Toplice boy “and won’t wear a mask.”

There are also indications that anti-maskers are calling for gatherings via social media, he said, but added that only three parents in Krapinske Toplice have protested, the parents of that boy and one girl’s mother.

Fuchs said all the other protesters there were not parents of the children going to that school and that all parents, except those three, were asking “us and the county authorities that the school be left alone.”

A member of the press said the parents of the boy wanted him to go to school but without a mask and asked if a compromise was possible. “How do you think we should organise that? The child should sit outside the classroom or out in the yard?” said Fuchs.

The minister said it was beyond him that the parents fail to understand the rule that pupils should wear a mask from the school’s entrance until they reach the classrooms.

He said the rule was not made to torture children, reiterating that masks were mandatory only in common areas and that in the Krapinske Toplice school, pupils did not wear them in classrooms as there was enough room for physical distancing.

Fuchs said the boy in question did not have a medical condition that would prevent him from wearing a mask and that in this case “there should be no compromise,” otherwise it would be impossible to enforce any COVID rules.