Gordana Gutic, a woman to whom Dragan Vlahovic, a school security guard and the first victim of the monster boy Kosta K., was best friends with, revealed to Republika that she had been trying to convince him before the massacre that working at OŠ „Vladislav Ribnikar“ was no longer suitable for him, even though the students considered that school their second home, precisely because of him.
„I told him, begged him to step away from those doors, I had a sense of something evil. That school was no longer the same as before, and in a longer period of time, the decline was recorded, and I saw that,“ Gordana said in an interview for Republika.
She started working as a cleaner at Ribnikar in 2007 and says that for years she went to work with great pleasure, especially since their collective was joined by Dragan in 2013, but unfortunately, the situation changed in the last few years. She says there were all sorts of bad things, even mobbing, bad interpersonal relationships, and that some teachers were influenced by the parents of privileged students, but good old Dragan did not give up and worked diligently until the last day.
„Dragan, my Lale, was everything a man could be. A born gentleman without a tie. I will never forget him or erase him from my soul. Honest and a great man who is rarely born or no longer born. I cannot describe what kind of person he was. He was the most precious worker in the school, the principal was calm when he was there, as well as all of us around him. He could welcome anyone and guide them from child to old man. He was always smiling and ready to make a joke, make the day more beautiful and cheer everyone up, reliable to the core. Support, pillar, and shoulder to cry on, but also someone who makes you laugh until tears. He knew the name of every child, as well as their parents, grandparents. He helped everyone, employees and students, kept the keys for the kids, sports equipment, and forgotten things. Waited with the kids for their parents to pick them up. He knew what kind of backpack each child had. We saw him as family. He was my best friend and more than that, like my dearest brother,“ Gordana said through tears.
She said she has been devastated since she found out Dragan was gone. She could not face the consequences of the tragedy and the loss of her friend, so she decided to leave her job. For her, Ribnikar is no longer a school, even though her children were students there.
„I no longer work at that school, but I stop by at Kralja Milutina 10 and light a cigarette on our ashtray, where Lale and I used to smoke. Ribnikar as a concept should exist, but not at that place. Without Dragan, everything lost its meaning. There was no chance I would stay to work in that building where he perished. It was my luck that I was not there that day, otherwise, I would probably have been near him. While the children were in class, we would socialize, joke, and share problems. We advised each other. We knew more about each other than our families knew. I felt the need to tell his family about him, how my loss was irreplaceable, as was theirs, to know how much he meant to us at school and how noble he was and did good deeds for everyone. They knew how important he was to their family. It’s unknown whether he was a better son, uncle, brother, grandfather. Unfortunately, he did not have his own children, but he did have nieces and nephews and their children, and everyone adored him,“ Gordana said in one breath.
She spent her free time with him many times, they went out of town to socialize, and she will remember birthday celebrations with him.
„It could not happen that we did not celebrate birthdays together. Dragan, I, and our colleague Radica. He was a gentleman who would take us out to a pub to have fun together with music, eat and drink whenever one of us had a birthday. We had to celebrate it. We went to cottages and out of town to relax in nature. There was no one happier at parties than him, God had given him to everyone,“ Gordana wiped tears as she told stories of their time together.
„He knew what Radica and I liked and needed, and he always made us laugh. The three of us were the best team, Dragan worked all day, and we worked in shifts, but we would always have coffee together every day. He was humorous, even liked black humor. He joked even about himself. Once he jokingly said that his funeral would be big and that there would be a line to the bridge. He meant a neighborhood in Belgrade because he lived in Visnjicka Banja. Now countless people are mourning him, and he will always live with all of us,“ Gordana concluded.
Gordana immediately quit her job at the school after the tragedy and changed employers so she would not have to go through hell every day and see the „empty space“ of her favorite man in the school, always smiling and upbeat, everyone’s favorite „uncle“ Dragan. The fact tormented her too much and was pressing on her chest.
„Goodbye OŠ Vladislav Ribnikar. All you dear Ribnikar citizens forever in my heart,“ Gordana wrote on Facebook, after which the teachers and other school staff wished her luck in her new job and said they felt she would leave because it was no longer the same place full of laughter, now replaced by tears for Dragan and his nine sleeping angels, eight girls and one boy murdered by that monstrous child shooting on May 3 from his father’s gun at the school they attended.
Dragana’s friend is terribly sorry that Dragan did not live to enjoy the fact that he got a basketball player for Partizan in the family, whose fiery supporter he was. He missed out on celebrating one more great thing.
„Aki, the grandson of his sister, started playing for the younger team of KK Partizan, and his nephew Milos became a pilot. I can imagine how happy he would have been because he saw all those children as his own. He was waiting for Misa to become a pilot, but he did not make it. I hope he watches us from above and is happy in heaven,“ Gordana finished with teary eyes.
