Aggressive children in Czech schools: the law requires headteachers to notify prosecutors, but almost no one does

At a primary school in Prague's Hostivař district, a sixth-grader attacked a teaching assistant and threatened his classmates. The family subsequently moved house, and the boy transferred to another school — which, by law, was obliged to accept him so he could complete compulsory education. The problem simply shifted a few kilometres away rather than being solved.

Headteacher Jana Banovská says that as far as her school is concerned, the incident is closed, but she remains frustrated: the system never forced the child to undergo a medical evaluation or move to a specialised school. According to her, the boy's parents flatly refused any form of treatment.

The law requires it, but headteachers don't know about it

The case caught the attention of Prosecutor General Lenka Bradáčová. It turned out that the assault on the assistant never even reached a prosecutor's desk — even though, she says, it should have. Article 31 of the Schools Act obliges headteachers to immediately inform child protective services and the prosecutor's office about cases of particularly severe physical or verbal violence by pupils against other children or school staff.

After reviewing data from prosecutors' offices across the country, Bradáčová found that this legal tool is used extremely rarely. Deputy Education Minister Michal Černý confirmed that headteachers often simply aren't aware of this obligation, or don't consider a given situation serious enough. Yet the law doesn't frame it as an option — it's a direct duty: "the headteacher shall report," not "may report."

According to Bradáčová, a prosecutor or court can order measures for unmanageable and aggressive children even without parental consent — ranging from a formal warning and mandatory participation in therapeutic and psychological programmes, to the most severe measure: placement in a residential institution.

Biting, throwing chairs, choking classmates

After the first story was published, dozens of parents and teachers contacted the newsroom with similar cases. One mother said that since second grade, a boy in her daughter's class had been violently attacking classmates — and especially his own teaching assistant, biting and kicking her so hard that she had to take sick leave to recover.

In another class, an aggressive child choked a classmate until he lost consciousness and sent death threats over WhatsApp. A conflict with the aggressive boy's mother — who insisted her son would still attend a planned school trip — forced the school to cancel the outing to nature altogether. Some parents are now seriously considering transferring their children to other schools.

Lubomír, a Prague resident, described a class that a third of pupils have already left because of one aggressive classmate: the boy threw chairs and other objects at children, and only the headteacher's arrival could calm him down. For a long time, the boy's parents refused to take any action, citing the inclusive education law that guarantees the right to schooling. Eventually the troubled pupil was transferred to specialists and to a different school.

Alternative solutions

David Kolář, headteacher of the T. G. Masaryk School in Komárov, described having to develop his own crisis plan for a pupil with recurring outbursts of aggression — the child threw objects and chairs, swore, and hit those around him even in the presence of an assistant. After contacting child protective services, the school organised a meeting with all relevant authorities and the parents, who were eventually persuaded that the child needed a specialised school.

Kolář deliberately avoided invoking Article 31, calling his own approach faster and more effective, and noting the difficulty of proving intent when a child is acting in a state of emotional outburst.

Experts stress that aggression is merely a symptom of an underlying problem — be it family difficulties, psychological trauma, or health issues. Educational support centres can help, offering either outpatient support or residential stays — typically around eight weeks, during which the child continues studying and stays in contact with family. However, even once the need for such help is recognised, families often wait about a month for a place, and centres sometimes temporarily stop admitting new patients altogether due to overcrowding.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz