What police say happened

Police in Timișoara opened an investigation after a photograph of a 13-year-old student holding a knife in a classroom of the Nikolaus Lenau theoretical high school was shared on a social media platform. According to Timiș county police (IPJ Timiș), the picture was taken on 21 October 2026 and reached officers on 22 October, when school representatives reported it. An anonymous email sent to the school on Thursday, 22 October, attached the photo and claimed the boy had a record of inappropriate behaviour and had been involved in several disciplinary incidents. The caption, which the sources render slightly differently, called the boy the coolest but said some people did not see that side of him. Officers identified the classroom and the pupil, then spoke with students and school leaders about how the picture was taken and how it spread.

How the school and authorities responded

The school said it acted immediately after receiving the anonymous message. It alerted the community police officer responsible for the school, the school safety office and the Timiș county resource and educational assistance centre, whose specialists visited the school the same day to carry out an initial assessment and offer counselling to students. The county school inspectorate described the incident in its own statement.

“The image was accompanied by a text with potentially intimidating content.”

The inspectorate asked every school unit in Timiș county to re-examine its safety procedures. Representatives of the Directorate-General for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Timiș also attended the school to assess the situation. The case will be reviewed by the school's violence prevention commission and by an action group set up within the unit. IPJ Timiș said the school had run 27 preventive activities since the start of the 2026-2027 school year, the most recent of them on 22 October.

The boy's account and his father's reaction

The 13-year-old told teachers and police that the knife was a toy and that it belonged to the person who photographed him. Antena3 reported that he would not say where he had put the object. His father came to the school, spoke with the community police officer in the presence of school leaders, and said he did not know his son had such an object. He expressed regret over the situation. Police opened an investigation for carrying or using dangerous objects without right, acting on their own initiative.

Expert view and wider context

Gabriela Groza, a lawyer and judicial expert psychologist, told Digi24 that the gesture does not automatically point to aggressive intent.

“We cannot assume straight away that he necessarily had aggressive intent.”

She said that children sometimes pose with such objects to get attention online or from their peers, though the school and specialists still need to make the pupil understand the danger and prevent other children from copying him. She also noted it was not yet known whether he had shown the knife to classmates. The case comes after other violent incidents involving schoolchildren. On Monday, 19 October, a 13-year-old in Bistrița struck a teacher several times with a knife and also hit a student who intervened. On Thursday, 22 October, a ninth-grade student in Pitești hit two classmates with a machete.

Next steps

Police continued their checks with school representatives on Friday, 23 October. The inquiry is expected to establish all the circumstances of the incident and the legal measures that must follow.