ZAGREB, 13 Sept 2021 - Several protesters gathered outside Krapinske Toplice Primary School on Monday morning to support a parent who does not want his child to wear a protective mask while attending classes, and also an expert team is expected to arrive to provide psychological assistance at the site.

The pupil concerned on Monday again came to school without a protective mask and was denied access to the school building.

The first protest of this kind was held on Friday when about 20 people rallied because that boy, who refuses to wear a face mask, had been banned from entering the school. The protest was organized by the boy's father, who says a mask makes it difficult for his son to breathe and that the school does not allow him to use common areas without it. In that way, he said, his son is being denied the right to an education.

Education Minister Radovan Fuchs is also expected to visit the school today.

The school's headmaster, Samson Štibohar, said today that they had asked the parents to obtain from doctors the medical explanation that the child should be exempt from the mask-wearing rule on medical conditions.

I find all this escalation unnecessary, the headmaster explained.

On Friday he said that children's health and safety came first and that the protest was the result of one parent's refusal to comply with the measures, protocols, and decisions under which headmasters had to create work guidelines for the new school year.

"The problem is that the pupil and his parent refuse that he wears a mask in the hall and the toilet and when entering and leaving school, which takes maybe two minutes," he said, adding that he saw nothing positive in the protest.

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With the start of the new school year quickly approaching, the Split-Dalmatia County Police Department has implemented the action 'Respect Our Signs' in an effort to increase the level of safety for children and all other road users.