Three school attacks in Masovia in two days leave a caretaker dead and prompt closures
A 15-year-old former pupil killed a school caretaker in Leszczydół-Nowiny on Thursday, a day after a 19-year-old wounded nine people with a knife in Ostrołęka.
Two attacks in two days
On Wednesday 7 October, a 19-year-old attacked people with a knife at Zespół Szkół Zawodowych nr 4 in Ostrołęka, wounding nine: five pupils, two teachers and two bystanders. He also carried a backpack with homemade explosive material. The same day in Sierpc, police detained a 17-year-old who had told classmates he planned to "do something bad at school", and found two knives in his pouch and internet searches about a planned attack on his phone.
On Thursday morning, around 9:00, a 15-year-old former pupil entered the primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny in Wyszków county and attacked a 37-year-old caretaker with a sharp tool. The school director heard her screams, came into the corridor and tried to subdue him, helped by a teacher who came out of a classroom. The caretaker died despite resuscitation and left two sons. The director and the teacher were injured, and neither faces danger to life. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the boy had entered the school wearing a helmet with an attached camera and wanted to film the whole incident.
We are dealing with a teenage killer.
- 19-year-old attacks nine people with a knife at Zespół Szkół Zawodowych nr 4 in Ostrołęka
- Police detain a 17-year-old who had said he planned to do something bad at school
- 15-year-old attacks a caretaker at a primary school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, who dies despite resuscitation
- Family court in Wyszków takes up the 15-year-old's case
- Pupils
- 5 people
- Teachers
- 2 people
- Bystanders
- 2 people
Political response
Przemysław Czarnek, the PiS candidate for prime minister, held a press conference on Friday and presented a proposal he called the "Bezpieczna szkoła" programme. He said the events of the past two days were a series he had not seen before.
Within 48 hours, a series of events happened in Polish schools that we had not faced before. I am not talking about one case, because a single incident may happen, although it should not.
In an interview with RMF FM, Czarnek, who served as education minister, said he would close schools that day. He argued that parents should talk with their children about social media and online content. He also accused the services of failing to act on a parents' forum post saying warnings about an online challenge had been reported two years earlier.
On the wider threat, the head of the ABW internal security agency, Rafał Syrysko, had warned about radicalisation of young people half a year earlier in an interview with Rzeczpospolita.
It is a particularly worrying phenomenon, because we do not always deal with an organised ideology today.
Online challenge claims and police checks
Reports linked the attacks to an internet challenge said to involve teenagers. Digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who is also deputy prime minister, rejected that picture on Friday in an interview with TVN24.
There is currently no such threat that would indicate a nationwide action that has united some group of people.
Police are checking the challenge hypothesis. National police chief Marek Boroń told Polsat News that all information would be verified and asked the public to report anything that causes concern. In Legionowo, the city hall closed two schools that appeared, according to unconfirmed information, on a list linked to the challenge, and the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime is involved. Rumours of a "bloody Friday" in schools also circulated online.
Closures and school measures
In Wyszków gmina, all public and non-public primary schools and kindergartens are closed on Friday, with only childcare provided. Secondary schools are closed in Pułtusk, Wołomin and Ciechanów counties, and schools and kindergartens in Piaseczno are also shut. The Warsaw city hall did not recommend cancelling lessons, but it admitted only pupils and staff and ordered directors to tighten security checks. The teachers' union ZNP called for legal powers to carry out personal searches of pupils, screening devices in schools and funding for private security guards.
The case in court
The family court in Wyszków, the Family and Juvenile Division of the District Court, takes up the 15-year-old's case on Friday. A 15-year-old can be tried as an adult only if a court decides so, and prosecutors must first establish his psychological development and emotional maturity through expert opinion after psychiatric observation. That process will take at least several weeks or months. The boy's 19-year-old sister told Fakt that he sometimes said he wanted to burn a church and stab someone inside it, but nobody took the remarks seriously.
