Tusk convenes emergency meeting as 10,000 police return to Polish schools after attacks

Two attacks in early October

Polish schools have become the focus of national attention after a series of attacks involving pupils and former pupils. In Ostrołęka, a 19-year-old wounded nine people on 7 October, and prosecutors say he used a knife and a hatchet. The following day in Leszczydół-Nowiny near Wyszków, a former pupil attacked staff at a school. Daria, a 37-year-old woman who worked as the school caretaker, died, while a female teacher was taken to hospital and headteacher Krzysztof Ochmański, who restrained the boy, suffered superficial wounds. The combined toll across both incidents is one dead and eleven wounded.

'Black Friday' and the detentions

On Friday 9 October, a day that Polish households had begun calling 'Black Friday', pupils organised online and brought dangerous objects to school. In Warsaw, police detained two teenagers carrying knives, and in other parts of the country some pupils were found with machetes in their backpacks. Police said that by 5 pm that day officers had checked nearly 35,000 facilities, recorded 172 incidents and detained 59 people. The figure rose to 76 detentions as of 6 am on Saturday 10 October. Warsaw police spokesman Jacek Wiśniewski said that one 17-year-old was stabbed in the forearm near the school secretariat, was hospitalised, and her wounds were not life-threatening.

Government meeting and police patrols

Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened a Sunday morning meeting with the ministers of education, interior and administration, health and digitisation, together with the coordinator of special services and representatives of the services. Tusk told the meeting that 10,000 officers were guarding school safety on Sunday and that checks were under way in schools and their surroundings. He said the government does not face a large organised group, and described the behaviour behind the attacks in these words:

These are very often spontaneous behaviours, arising mainly from activity on the internet.

Tusk also pointed to young people searching online for content linked to violence from the Second World War era, which he called a dangerous civilisational phenomenon. Police patrols will return to schools from Monday 12 October, moving on foot and by car, entering school grounds to contact staff and management, and remaining there until further notice, according to the National Police Headquarters (KGP) on Saturday.

Debate over children's access to online content

Education Minister Barbara Nowacka asked teachers to address the situation with their pupils in the coming days and next week. She called for discussion of the confusion that has arisen, crisis situations, danger and mental health.

I am asking all teachers, in the coming days and next week, to talk with young people about the confusion that has arisen, about crisis situations, about danger, about mental health.

Lawyer and former deputy Ombudsman Hanna Machińska told TVN24 that every school now faces an unusual challenge in reaching these pupils and making them aware of the gravity of the situation. Journalist Sławomir Sierakowski called for limits on children's devices and urged parents and teachers to stop accepting unrestricted access.

Let's take phones away from children, let's take social media away from them.

Sierakowski argued that in Poland the starting point should be that children do not have a phone at the age of seven or eight.