Polish schools stay under police patrols after knife attacks, 135 detained

The attacks behind the response

Two knife attacks in the week before Monday, 12 October, prompted the government's response. According to Do Rzeczy, a 19-year-old attacked nine people in Ostrołęka on Wednesday, 7 October, injuring five pupils, two teachers and two bystanders. On Thursday, 8 October, a 15-year-old attacked people with a knife at a school in Leszczydół-Nowiny in Wyszków county, injuring three. A 37-year-old woman caretaker who tried to stop the attacker died from the attack, and the school's male director subdued him, Do Rzeczy reported. On the same Wednesday, police in Sierpc foiled another planned attack.

Patrols and detentions

Speaking after a meeting with ministers and heads of services on Monday, Tusk said about 20,000 police officers had patrolled schools and their surroundings that day, and that 18 more people had been detained and checked. Police reported that by 06:00 on Monday 311 incidents had been recorded in which officers were acting on reasonable suspicion of a crime, and that 135 people had been detained so far. Police detentions of young people who posted threatening videos online began on Thursday evening, 8 October.

As long as we observe situations that cause concern, schools will be under this special supervision, so that they are fully safe places.

Deputy interior minister Wiesław Szczepański said the detentions relate to promoting such content, possessing sharp tools, planning actions or calling for them. He said about 24,000 officers would check Polish schools on Monday, as on Friday, 9 October, and would enter the buildings if needed. Interior minister Marcin Kierwiński said the patrols would continue for at least several more days and could be intensified or extended. He added that online activity was slowly stabilising, with Monday much calmer than the previous Friday, 9 October. National police commander Marek Boroń said the number of online posts about a possible threat to schools was falling.

Platforms and online content

Krzysztof Gawkowski, the digital affairs minister, said he had convened an extraordinary meeting for Friday, 16 October, and would present findings from the government's online monitoring. He will ask platforms to remove dangerous content as quickly as possible. He also said that over the last two or three days, residual accounts had appeared imitating and reproducing such content or paying tribute to the killer. He told Polsat News that the incidents were being used to spread disinformation and that reports of Russian bot activity amplifying them had emerged. Gawkowski said there is currently no law on online safety, but he would like platforms to take responsibility as well.

I have convened for Friday an extraordinary meeting of digital platforms, including the largest ones, but also representatives of Telegram.

Questions over police data

Police said on social media that nearly 80,000 facilities had been checked, but when Niezależna.pl asked, police headquarters explained that the figure refers to checks carried out several times at many facilities. Poland has 23,100 primary and secondary schools, according to the portal. Police headquarters told the portal it does not know how many of the 135 people detained had been charged, how many remain at liberty, or how many were minors, and that it does not collect information on suspects' ages. Each case is handled by the local unit where it occurred. Niezależna.pl noted that this makes it hard to establish whether the cases are linked, for example through online inspiration or the 'challenge' theory that Tusk initially suggested.

School procedures

Roman Kotarski, director of Primary School No. 15 in Lublin, told Radio ZET that the procedures for an armed attacker existed before but many schools had never practised them. Under the procedure, staff are told to get out of the attacker's way or lock themselves in a classroom, and if confronted, to follow his instructions and keep him calm. The school is patrolled by police and city guards, visitors are admitted by intercom and must show ID, and parents collect children from a designated zone. Kotarski said the school cannot look into pupils' backpacks, so police must do so if staff suspect something.

The services are acting very efficiently, and I cannot say a bad word, because cooperation with the police is really very good.