After the rampage in Schongau: Parents demand a protection concept
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After the terrible attack at the Welfen-Gymnasium, the process of coming to terms with it is now underway. Two mothers demand that verbal threats be taken seriously and have specific wishes for what needs to be improved in schools.
Schongau – As reported, even before the Christmas holidays, young people and parents were worried about an incident involving the alleged perpetrator. Deborah Leibinger from Peiting is one of several parents who contacted the school management in December. Now she is turning to the local newspaper – in the hope that other schools will also learn from the incident and draw conclusions.
Leibinger’s daughter attends the same class of the alleged perpetrator, in which the student airdropped lewd and violent material to other students using the new school iPads during class. The teenager posed as another student in the class. There was also an outbreak of violence in music class.
The mother reports that the situation in the class is becoming increasingly tense and that the alleged perpetrator has become an outsider. Because he then spoke of a shooting spree, Leibinger wrote an email to the rectorate in mid-December. “I thought the whole thing was a serious matter.” In her email, Leibinger asked for help for the student and the class in question. If the high school failed to do this, she would go to the police herself. The next day, the youth officer from the Schongau police station visited the class, said the mother.
Mothers have many questions
Leibinger is not the only one who, looking back, has many questions. “What legal options for monitoring or care are there in Germany when young people are noticed with threats of amok at schools?” asks another mother who doesn’t want to read her name in the newspaper. “And what about looking after their parents?”
This mother also regrets that the school did not react proactively in the winter. And clearly there was no functioning amok warning concept. As is now known, the warning sounded via the fire alarm system and the siren sounded in a different sequence than usual. “The fact that obviously not all teachers were informed about this is shocking,” says the mother. As reported, some teachers mistook the alarm for a fire alarm and sent the young people outside or told them they could go home because it was lunchtime. The mother also criticizes this: “Even if it’s ‘just’ a fire alarm, you still have to get together, leave the room in an orderly manner and accompany the classes to a meeting point.”
Deborah Leibinger would like to see all types of schools, from primary schools to vocational schools, practice amok alarm in the future. “So far this has not happened at the schools I know of.” The other mother, who does not want to read her name in the newspaper, also wants young people and parents to be informed about a protection concept for the new school year. The woman also emphasizes that now, after the crime, communication from the high school is very good, she feels well looked after and knows about contact points, such as crisis counseling in the school area.