A knife attack on a teacher highlights violence at a secondary school in Ludwigshafen. Rhineland-Pfalz’s Education Minister acknowledged that warnings had been ignored for years and announced better training for teachers.
After serious complaints became known at the Karolina-Burger-Realschule plus in Ludwigshafen, State Education Minister Sven Teuber (SPD) acknowledged the failure of the ADD school supervisory authority. For years, warning letters “were not appreciated enough,” he said Thursday at the Mainz state parliament’s Education Committee. The school board member responsible for the area has now been replaced.
However, following the knife attack on a teacher in May, all authorities immediately took necessary action from day one, the minister assured. “The alleged perpetrator has been undergoing inpatient therapy since then,” he said. “We’re talking about sick people here.” The school community is supported psychologically, among other things.
Teuber vowed that staff must be better trained in dealing with challenging students. It’s about strengthening local authority. There are already seven full-time employees at the school who work with children and teenagers with behavioral problems.
Reports of large-scale violence at the Karolina-Burger-Realschule plus sparked national media coverage in November. In the past there have been numerous physical injuries, property damage, threats against students and teachers, and most recently, shooting alarms. Teachers report that it is no longer possible to provide structured learning in schools.
Let’s not start a debate about Ludwigshafen
Teuber acknowledged that the difficult situation at schools, which he described as a nationally isolated case, could not be resolved in the short term. Problems have been piling up for years. Three changes in school management in eight years also show that the situation at the location is unstable.
The minister said that the city of Ludwigshafen, not the state, was responsible for many of the questions that now arise: “The school authorities were given some homework to do.” The school’s structural situation is difficult with many previously uncontrolled entrances and exits. The city government did not remain silent and took action to strengthen the sense of security at the site. Teuber warned that the problems at these special schools should not escalate into a general “debate about Ludwigshafen” or about plus secondary schools.
CDU: Loss of state authority
Last week, the situation at school became the subject of sometimes emotional debate. CDU parliamentary group leader Gordon Schnieder accused his country of ignoring warning signs for years. CDU education politician Jenny Groß accused the country of saying that the problems at Karoline Burger School were just the “tip of the iceberg”.
Reports from Ludwigshafen of children being bullied, throwing firecrackers or secret video recordings indicate “nothing less than a loss of state authority”. The CDU Rhineland-Pfalz has now activated a reporting portal on the Internet that allows anonymous reporting of safety issues in schools throughout the Rhineland-Pfalz.
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