Students of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki sent a letter to the highest Greek authorities asking for a solution to rampant criminal activity and vandalism on campus.
Students complain that the university campus has become a place for open drug dealing, frequent acts of vandalism, robberies and even rape. On Thursday night, on the commemoration day for the murder of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police, there were extensive acts of destruction to the point that the university was closed on Friday.
A student group called the Coordination Committee for Action Against Drugs sent a letter to the President of the Republic, the Minister of Education and the Deputy Minister for Citizen Protection desperately asking for help. In the letter, they say that the university has become a den of crime and lawlessness.
“We know that the social problem of drugs is complex and can not be solved by extraordinary measures, much less so when it is dealt with by wishful thoughts and theoretical analysis. Drug trafficking and its consequences within an educational environment has created such a situation that can not improve without systematic police action,” the letter says.
“We ask the government and every competent state authority, every party and every politician with the least sense of responsibility and every conscientious citizen to support our effort,” the letter further says.
“Every day the thousands of AUT students are forced to walk through debris, dirt and drugs – for how much longer? The state has abandoned the most creative part of the country to its fate. Your children, the younger generation that everyone says they are the future of Greece, is becoming day by day accustomed to a new “normality”: that of crime that goes unpunished, protected crime, fear, harassment, violence,” the letter continues.
“The university, through its students, is sending an SOS. Don’t let it drown any deeper,” the letter concludes.
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