Viera Kičrova was angry. Reluctant to talk when approached outside her office, she bristled with frustration. The questions asked of her were redirected to the mayor, the municipality, anywhere but the school she leads. But Kičrova had little to lose. She would, in the end, try to explain. “The children are not responsible for the situation,” she said. “We are here to help them no matter the colour of their skin.”
Kičrova is the headteacher of a small elementary school in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, in eastern Slovakia, that has been at the centre of a national debate in the run-up to the east European country’s general election in late September, a judgment from the supreme court in Bratislava, and most recently an intervention from Brussels.
