ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 – The Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, Nada Murganić, on Thursday commented on an incident in a Zadar high school where a male student on Wednesday, using a lighter, branded a fellow female and a fellow male student with the letter U, saying that the school should have reported the incident to the police, parents and social workers.
Murganić stressed that local social workers would carry out an inspection of the student’s domestic circumstances.
She said that this was “an ugly and violent act” towards a fellow student which bore evidence of the need to prevent bringing up a generation of young thugs who deal with their partners in a violent way.
In a message to opponents of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Murganić said that cases of violence against women were very difficult to deal with once they reached the stage at which a crime had already been committed. “We must identify problems and deal with them much sooner,” she said, underlining the importance of prevention and education.
Commenting on the case of a young man who has been found guilty of brutally beating up his 18-year-old girlfriend in Zadar and who will be released from custody on Sunday, Murganić said that the state can and must protect the victim from the threats she was receiving.
Police said on Thursday that they were investigating the incident while the principal of the school where it happened told the media that he had been told at a class meeting that “it was just a game.”
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