Students from a Larnaca secondary school allegedly travelled to Greece twice to receive training from extremist organisations before recruiting hundreds of members to a neo-Nazi group, prompting the school to file a complaint with authorities.
Vergina Lyceum reported the group to the district’s Educational Service Commission after the scale of the operation emerged, Deputy Director of Secondary Education Giorgos Koutsides told philenews.
Investigators are examining around 10 students who allegedly played active roles in the group, called “verginazi,” which attracted three-digit membership on social media. Five students have admitted participation, and authorities are investigating reports that some made two trips to Greece for training from extreme organisations.
The story broke last Thursday when photographs emerged showing students performing Nazi salutes and displaying swastikas. The students had shared the images themselves.
“Today we established a committee at the school and they began calling students to gather additional information,” Koutsides said. Investigators found no swastika slogans at the school, though some names were written on walls last September and immediately erased, he added.
“We also had no issues with violence, delinquency or racist incidents at the school,” Koutsides said. The ministry has activated its protocol and will conduct training sessions through history lessons covering all classes.
Asked whether the five students who admitted involvement would face penalties, Koutsides said none had been imposed yet. “We need to investigate first, locate them and then decide. The priority is to talk with them, understand the logic behind their actions and educate them,” he said, adding that all required procedures would be followed.
Loizos Konstantinou, president of the Secondary Education Parents’ Associations Confederation, called the case unprecedented for Cyprus. “The message we want to send is that we will not accept these phenomena or those who think of infiltrating schools to spread such views and recruit people. We send our children to schools to be educated, not for anyone to find an opportunity to spread their dangerous opinions,” he said.
Konstantinou noted that whilst some schools have seen students display symbols or write graffiti, nothing has occurred to this degree before.
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