Everything started on Saturday 6th December 2008…
His name was Alexis Grigoropoulos, a child born in Athens. He was one of us… a 15-year-old boy dreaming of the future. He had lots of dreams for himself. He would like to be a lawyer, he wanted to succeed in this domain. Well, nothing is certain in this life!
Like everyone at his age, he wanted to entertain himself by going out to celebrate the name-day of one of his friends.
It was 8:30pm…
Demonstrations were taking place in the centre of Athens. Students from all Athens’ universities had been protesting about the economical crisis which has affected everyone, Greek people, too. You could hear the sound of molotov, smoke grenades etc.
9:20pm…
Alexis was in the street when a police car passed by. Someone threw a bottle of beer at the car. After a couple of minutes the officers being in the car came back and there was an argument. They exchanged some insults. The situation started to get from bad to worse when suddenly a bullet stopped everyone’s voice…
Alexis GOT KILLED! The two officers walked away as if nothing had happened…
Greece is mourning…
The Police officers were arrested but nothing can bring back the soul of this boy whose death was so unfair.
“ He was only 15” everyone said.. Riots broke out all over the centre of Athens and then all over Greece, targeting police stations.
Although everything started from a small number of people, during the day many school and university students, as well as other young people, started taking part in the clashes with the riot police.
Like every riot, this one had its consequences. Many shops were burnt and their windows were smashed. In addition to this, some people with their faces covered broke into the stores and started ramaging and looting them.
So far there have been demonstrations and clashes with the police in the centre of Athens everyday. Yesterday one of the students of our school, who took part in a demonstration, was arrested. Today he is being taken to court and many teachers, parents and students have gone to support him.
Fortunately, Vrilissia is far from the centre and the events haven’t affected us directly.
1st Lykeio Vrilission, Athens Greece
I.T.A.S.S. "Elena di Savoia", L' Aquila Italy
Spring Day for Europe 2009
2 comments:
This comment is from Italian teachers to Greek teachers.
All the teachers of our school have read the article written by one of your students on the blog. Obviously the Italian news reported this tragedy, but reading the article and watching the video deeply moved us. We can only imagine how you as teachers feel about everything that's happening especially when your students are involved. It's very difficult to tell our students to use their brain in such situations as they are emotionally involved.
We hope your student has been released and everything has been clarified. You are in our thoughts.
We're some ETWINNING team students, and today we were supposed to meet to send you our best wishes for the new year, but...We have just read your article and watched your video. What happened last week in your country is a tragedy that we have lived on other occasions, for example during the G8 meeting of Genoa when a young boy was killed by the police during a demostration.
We undestand you and we're deeply moved... We would like to stand by you to give you our support. We send you a friendly hug and we are looking forward to meeting you.
Itass etwinning team.
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