Two reports of violence near schools in Gjorče Petrov: who is watching the schoolyards?

Monday, November 2, 9:40 a.m. A fight between two minors from Skopje was reported to the Skopje police department, right next to a primary school in Gjorče Petrov. The Interior Ministry says only that it was a breach of public order and that steps are being taken to clear up the case and establish why the clash happened in the first place.

A few hours later, at 1:30 p.m., an official interview was held at the Gjorče Petrov police station, in the presence of a parent, with a 17-year-old from Skopje. According to the report, he physically attacked 18-year-old O.A. in the yard of a secondary school in the Gjorče Petrov area, and then threatened him together with his friends. Once everything has been fully documented, the police say, an "appropriate filing" will follow.

It didn't end with a punch. Threats followed, and from a group. And it is the group that decides whether a boy walks into the schoolyard calmly the next day or keeps looking over his shoulder. "Appropriate filing" is bureaucratic language for what happens on paper. What happens in the yard, nobody says.

In the police bulletin, each case gets a few sentences. Will the schools and the municipality speak up, or will it all stay at those few sentences? Parents in Gjorče have a simple question: who is watching the yard, and who steps in before the police have to be called?