In Ibbenbüren, Westphalia, a teacher was stabbed, apparently by one of her students. The case raises the question of how much violence teachers face. A study comes to a startling conclusion.
Tuesday early afternoon. The German teacher Sabine K., 55, is sitting alone in a classroom at the “Tecklenburger Land Commercial School” in Ibbenbüren, Westphalia.
The training center offers various qualifications up to the Abitur or professions. It’s just before 3 p.m. when 17-year-old student Sinan Y. approaches the room. In the morning, the youth had received a one-day expulsion from school.
Apparently he was one of the problem cases in the school. Subsequent investigations will show that Sinan Y. is said to have repeatedly insulted teachers.
That afternoon, the young man wants to confront his class teacher. He has a knife with him. What happens next is still part of the part that the homicide commission of the police and the Münster public prosecutor have to clear up.
It seems clear that the angry student stabbed the mother of two Sabine K. in a rage. The defenseless woman dies at the scene of the crime. The suspect then calls 911 and informs the police. He allows himself to be led away without resistance.
The public prosecutor obtained an arrest warrant for the teenager for manslaughter. According to the prosecution, the autopsy of the body shows that numerous stitches caused the victim to bleed to death.
The school is bewildered. Students set out candles and tea lights in memory of the victim. School operations are initially suspended.
A place of mourning will be set up in the auditorium. A book of condolences for the killed teacher is on display. The crime scene and the corresponding floor remain closed during the investigation.
NRW School Minister Dorothee Feller expresses her condolences to the colleagues of the dead during a visit to the school. “This act leaves me and all of us deeply affected and shaken,” says the CDU politician.
The minister emphasized that the school community will not be left alone in their grief. An emergency team from the school psychologist is also available to those affected.
So far, the accused has remained silent about the course of events and his motive. An irrepressible hatred for his victim and the school must have probably driven him to action. According to senior public prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt, the student is not on record with the Münster judiciary.
First of all, the investigation is under suspicion of manslaughter. However, the judiciary can still raise the charge to murder if, for example, the forensic investigations suggest the characteristic of insidiousness.
No matter. According to juvenile criminal law, the maximum in both cases is ten years.
Professional associations have long complained about increasing outbreaks of violence against teachers. It was only in November 2022 that the teachers’ union presented a new study in which a large proportion of the 1,300 headmasters surveyed described “depressing findings” on the subject of violence against teaching staff.
According to the Federal Chairman of the Education and Training Association, Udo Beckmann, two thirds of the directors have reported insults, threats or harassment in the past five years.
In 2018 it was 48 percent. Cyberbullying against teachers is also increasing massively.
A third of schools report violent physical attacks on teachers. In the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the study even registered physical attacks in almost half of the schools surveyed.
According to the information, remedial and special education institutions are particularly affected, but also secondary schools, junior high schools and comprehensive schools. 69 percent of school managements nationwide complain about the shortage of teachers, a third complain about the high workload, and about 25 percent complain about the problems with the inclusion and integration of refugees.
Violent students repeatedly make headlines. The 17-year-old Martin M. (name changed) is currently answering to the Düsseldorf state security senate for a planned right-wing extremist attack on his school in Essen.
The tenth grader wanted to cause a bloodbath among hated teachers and classmates with pipe bombs. During the arrest, the state security officers discovered 16 self-laboratory devices that were not far short of detonating.
In his pamphlets, M. babbled on about his unbridled hatred and the downfall of the white race. One of his role models was the mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 69 schoolchildren on the Norwegian island of Utoya.
Tim K., the 17-year-old gunman from Winnenden, was also one of his role models. On March 11, 2009, the gunman, heavily armed, shot dead ten students and three teachers in his secondary school.
He later killed himself. Apparently, K. felt he was being bullied by classmates and went nuts. The teenager had stolen the pistol, a Beretta 92, from his father.
Ten years later, three teenagers plotted to murder an unpopular chemistry teacher at the Martin Luther King Comprehensive School in Dortmund.
In May 2019, the three students tried to lure him into a neighboring garage courtyard under a pretext in order to smash his skull with hammers.
One of them was supposed to fake a dizzy spell in a parking lot to lure the school’s educator into the deadly trap. The youngest of the three hatched this plan.
The then 16-year-old student was angry about the bad grade in chemistry. The teacher, on the other hand, feared the worst and withdrew in good time.
However, the educator only found out about the murder plot at a parents’ conference through a tip from a classmate of the conspirators.
The main accused was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention for attempted murder, an accomplice received a prison sentence, and the third in the group was acquitted because he backed out of the crime in time. In April 2022, the Federal Court of Justice overturned the acquittal. The case has to be tried again.
In a total of 14 districts in three federal states, the German weather service warns with the red alert. At the moment it is still unusually warm. But next week it should finally snow significantly – at least in the mountains.
The founder of the steakhouse chain “Block House”, Eugen Block, worries about his kidnapped grandchildren. His former son-in-law took the children to Denmark but did not bring them back.
