Poland deploys police to schools after three stabbing attacks
Polish authorities launched a major school security operation on Monday after three stabbing attacks, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to tackle rising youth violence.
Warsaw, Poland. A large-scale police operation to protect schools was underway across Poland on Monday following three recent stabbing attacks at educational institutions. Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to confront what he described as an increasing pattern of violence among young people.
School security operation
Speaking to state news channel TVP Info late on Sunday, Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski announced that schools would receive a deployment of more than 20,000 officers on Monday. He said authorities needed to make clear that attacks against Polish children and a slide towards anarchy in public life would not be tolerated.
Police reported on Monday that, since Friday, officers had checked 80,000 educational institutions and taken 135 people into custody.
In one case, police said a boy had recreated his school within Roblox and used the model to simulate attacks against students. Officers found that he possessed knives, ammunition and a firearm.
Three attacks within four days
Saturday’s attack at a further education college in Warsaw left three people injured. It was the third stabbing at a Polish educational institution within four days.
The previous Thursday, a former pupil aged 15 killed a caretaker and wounded two teachers at a primary school in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw. The attacker wore a camera mounted on his helmet.
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old injured 10 people, himself among them, at a school in Ostroleka, north of Warsaw.
Concerns over online violence
Authorities rejected rumours connecting the attacks to an organised group or an online challenge.
At a crisis meeting on Sunday, Tusk said that the celebration of violence in parts of the internet was harming young people. He described an increasing fascination with violence both globally and in Poland, and characterised the emerging pattern as grim.
Tusk identified material promoting Nazi ideology, the glorification of strength and violent computer games as major contributing factors.
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