In the city of Leskovac, students from the Grammar School and the High School of Economics, which share the same building, stood together in silence for 15 minutes on Friday to commemorate the victims of the Novi Sad train station tragedy in which 15 people lost their lives.

Following the moment of silence, the students staged a protest by blocking the school entrance in solidarity with their peers across Serbia, demanding that the same requests made by other students be met. They added a demand of their own – the reconstruction of the ceiling on the second floor of their school.

Before the blockade, the students held a plenary meeting in the school’s hall. During this time, some students were approached by the police, who IDed them without explaining why they were taking down their details.

“We blocked the school entrance. Some teachers are inside, including those who supported us during the plenary meeting, while others left and it seems they won’t hold classes. The police came and IDed some students. We don’t know why,“ the students told local media.

Although the school administration had been sent an email about the plenary session, they did not respond. The janitor called the police and refused to unlock the doors to the ceremonial hall where the plenary meeting was to be held.

“I don’t know why the police were called to the school, we weren’t violent. We calmly tried to convince the janitor that we wouldn’t cause any trouble and that we would leave everything as we found it,” a senior student told the Beta news agency.

In the city of Sabac, communal police officers removed a banner from the fence of the Sabac Grammar School on Friday that read, “Sabac has risen, corruption kills.”

In response, the students marched to the communal police offices accompanied by residents of Sabac to demand the return of the banner.