15-YEAR-OLD GIRL PLACED IN DETENTION AFTER ATTACK, CALLED A "CHETNIK WOMAN", SERB AND INFIDEL

TUZLA, SEPTEMBER 7 /SRNA/ - The Municipal Court in Tuzla has ordered one month's detention for a 15-year-old girl, who is accused of attempted murder and causing serious bodily injuries following an attack at an elementary school in Gornja Tuzla, while sources close to the family said that she had been subjected to bullying and had been called a "Chetnik woman", a Serb and an "infidel".

The court said that the detention was ordered in connection with an incident on September 4 at the premises of Gornja Tuzla Elementary School, when the minor used a knife to inflict life-threatening injuries on another minor and attempted to inflict serious injuries on a second minor. The court found that, in this particular case, the general and specific requirements for ordering detention of a minor had been met. Sources close to the family of the detained girl told SRNA that she had been subjected to bullying by her peers for two years, specifically by the girls against whom she physically fought back. According to an SRNA source, the school administration had been informed in time about the harassment of the girl and the taunts she had been subjected to, but school officials assured them that it would not happen again. However, no action was taken, and the girl was told every day that she was a "Chetnik woman", "You're a Serb", "You eat pork", and similar things. In addition to the school administration, the relevant cantonal and federal ministries, the Human Rights Ombudsman, and the Pedagogical Institute were also informed, but no adequate response followed. The same sources told SRNA that the girl had previously attended a school in the Simin Han neighbourhood of Tuzla, but was withdrawn from the school precisely because of the harassment and daily attacks she faced, mainly because she was different from the other children and attended religious culture classes rather than Islamic religious education. She was subsequently enrolled in a school in Gornja Tuzla, where there were no problems in the fifth and sixth grades, but the situation escalated in the seventh grade on national grounds and continued thereafter, with the girl also being called an "infidel" and told that she was "ugly." The source said that the girl wears sports clothes, tracksuits and sneakers, and assumes that this may have bothered some people. He added that she is an excellent student, but that she felt no one was protecting her, so she tried to protect herself, but in a way that was unacceptable. "Nevertheless, ordering one month's detention for a 15-year-old girl says everything about those responsible in Tuzla Canton, rather than about the girl," the source said. However, federal media outlets quoted the mothers of the injured minors as saying that "the attacker had been a problem even before, and that the injured children are suffering trauma."