Close to a thousand people show up to support Budapest teachers warned for protesting

Nearly a thousand people took part in the demonstration that started in front of the Üllői street building of the School District Authority of Külső Pest on Friday morning. 24 teachers of Karinthy Frigyes High School in Pestszentlőrinc took part in the civil disobedience this Wednesday and went to the school district offices to receive their official warnings from the head of the school district.

At first, the demonstrators were standing only in front of the building and across the road, at the tram stop on the other side of Üllői street. But as the crowd grew in numbers, they soon took over the whole road and traffic came to a standstill. This was also confirmed by the Public Transportation Company's (BKK) Facebook page.

Teachers were allowed in two by two

The protesters spray-painted "Who will be left to teach?" on the pavement with red spray paint. Parents arriving with teachers clapped and chanted "No teachers, no future", "We are with you", and "Don't fire our teachers".

"This great support gives us a lot of strength," one of the teachers, Beáta Berta told the press. Even if the letter addressed to them contains a warning, they want to continue to protest, because, in their opinion, "we cannot go on living being told what to do".

After a while, the office door was opened and teachers were allowed to enter the office in pairs. They were presented with the official letters addressed to them behind closed doors.

They did not introduce themselves

After she came out of the School District office, Beáta Berta shared with those present what had happened inside. At first only three of them were allowed through the door, not even their lawyers could accompany them. Once inside, they were met by three people who did not introduce themselves. According to Ms Berta, soon afterwards they found out that one of them was a policeman in plain clothes.

Beáta Berta said that in the office, they were presumably met by the director of the school district, Krisztina Rábel, whom she had never met in person, but based on the photos of her she has seen, it was probably her. Beáta Berta introduced herself, they shook hands, the other woman looked her in the eye, but did not give her name.

Each teacher had to accept the letter signed by the school district director. Their letters do not contain a dismissal, only a warning – as has been the case in many other schools – about the consequences of civil disobedience. The letter also states that by their behaviour, the teachers are restricting the students' right to learn.

Three of the teachers from Karinthy were unable to come to the School District today because they had classes early in the morning. Although they had received permission from their principal not to report to school due to other commitments, the school district warned them yesterday that there would be consequences if they did not teach their first lesson. The three teachers therefore decided to stay and teach instead and they were represented by their lawyers.

It turned out that two of the twenty-four teachers originally mentioned did not receive a warning in the end, after it was found that they did not have classes on the day they took part in the civil disobedience.

Later, a minor incident occurred, as parents also wanted to enter the office to hand in their petition to the head of the school district. The head of the school district did not want to accept their petition, so the school district called the police, who arrived shortly afterwards.

The parents then left the office and the protesters went home.

They joined the strike and protested on Wednesday

The warned teachers from Karinthy Frigyes High School had joined the nationwide protest on Wednesday by going on strike or practicing civil disobedience against the curtailment of the teachers' right to strike and demanding higher pay. At the school, teachers protested with their mouths taped shut in a flash mob against attempts made to silence them.

On Thursday, the high school's principal went to the school district offices for a meeting on another matter. After the meeting, the head of the school district handed the principal 24 sealed envelopes addressed to the teachers who protested on 5 October with civil disobedience.

The teachers refused to accept the letters from the principal because their employer is the school district. This was the reason why they decided to go to the school district's office on Üllői street on Friday morning: they wanted to receive the letters personally from the head of the school district.

The practice so far has been that if teachers in a school engaged in civil disobedience, the school district has automatically handed or sent them a warning: all the letters contained the same text. Teachers who continued to repeatedly take part in civil disobedience activities were dismissed. Such was the case with 5 teachers from Kölcsey Ferenc High School in Budapest, two of whom gave an interview to Telex this week (with English subtitles):