Six children required medical care at a nearby clinic and one 7-year-old boy ended up in hospital after police tear-gassed and attacked a protest at a primary school in Exarcheia, Athens last Thursday (23 October). MAT and OPKE riot police set on a demonstration of around 100 parents, teachers, union members and schoolchildren from the 36th Primary School with beatings, tear gas and flash bangs. The protest, outside of the regional Directorate of Primary Education, opposed plans to merge school classes and highlighted lack of care for children with disabilities. 

The protest was called by groups including the Parents Federation, all the teachers’ associations from this part of the city, as well as the parents’ associations of 15 separate schools. Nevertheless, the police and right-wing press blame the incidents exclusively on the presence of parents who are members of the two local collectives “NO metro in Exarcheia Square” and “Open Assembly for the Defence of Strefi Hill”, accusing them of trying to break police lines and force their way into the building.

While anarchist parents and children may have been present, other workers and parents in the protest were anything but anti-authoritarian. As stated by the Strefi hill assembly, parents and collective members are not “horrible aliens from Andromeda” but “parents who fight for their children as they have learnt to fight for their neighbourhood, Hill, park and square“.
This is not the first time the schoolchildren at 36th Primary face violence and tear gas. In April, following the eviction of the “Exostrefis” squat on its first birthday, a number of cultural and educational activities took place around Strefi hill, with the support of the School’s parents’ assocation. The climbing and tightrope walking activities were interrupted violently by riot police. 

So far, the parents’ attempts to bring this up in the supposedly “progressive” Athens City Council have fallen on deaf ears.