How a Week of School Attacks in Poland Unfolded and What Tusk Says Drove Them
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday that a series of school attacks this week were driven by the online "glorification of violence," not by an organized group. Three attacks in four days left one person dead and many wounded, including children, and police have detained 117 people across the country for carrying weapons or making threats, according to ABC News and the BBC.
Tusk spoke after a crisis meeting with government and security services. He said police checks at schools would continue into next week.
A week of attacks, day by day
- Wednesday: A 19-year-old student at a vocational school in the Mazovian province in central Poland attacked fellow students, teachers and passersby with a sharp object, wounding nine people, ABC News reported. He was arrested nearby.
- Thursday: A 15-year-old killed a school custodian and wounded two other people in a knife attack at his former school in the same province. The BBC reported that the victim was a 37-year-old caretaker at a primary school north of Warsaw.
- Friday: Rumors spread in parents' online groups and in mainstream media that the attacks were coordinated and that more would come on a "bloody Friday." According to ABC News, 59 schools across Poland, most of them in Mazovian province, suspended classes as a precaution. The BBC reported that thousands of police officers visited schools nationwide to reassure pupils.
- Friday, detentions: Police said those detained included a 14-year-old boy from Warsaw found with a knife with a concealed blade and 11 firecrackers, and a 16-year-old who brought a butterfly knife to school in his backpack.
- Saturday: A 21-year-old woman wounded three people at a post-secondary school in Warsaw, according to ABC News. The BBC reported that she was arrested after injuring three people while attacking a 17-year-old girl at an educational institution in the capital.
- Sunday: Tusk held the crisis meeting and gave the nationwide tally of 117 detentions. ABC News reported that some 64,000 schools had been checked; the BBC described the figure as tens of thousands.
The BBC also reported that Poland's interior minister said a 17-year-old was detained in the town of Sierpc, northwest of Warsaw, after allegedly saying on school grounds that he intended to harm someone.
What Tusk says is behind the attacks
Tusk described the incidents as largely spontaneous and inspired by online activity. He said authorities had noticed a rise, both globally and in Poland, in fascination with violence.
He linked the acts to what authorities call "nihilistic violence," a term for violence driven by a nihilistic worldview and misanthropy rather than specific political goals. He said some of those detained are active in the ultraright milieu. Police have seen increased online searches for Nazi content and for mass killers who have become online idols, he said. The BBC described the attacks as associated with the extreme right.
Tusk called the trend a "civilizational phenomenon," saying children who play video games, even banal ones, or follow crime stories are exposed to more and more violence.
Kacper Rekawek, a senior researcher at the International Center for Counterterrorism in The Hague, told the AP the attacks fit a copycat pattern stretching back at least to 2019. He pointed to Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that year. Rekawek said one suspect in the Polish attacks used the same imagery and esthetics as Tarrant, so the incidents should be viewed as essentially terrorist behavior.
What this means for parents, students and schools
For families in Poland, the most immediate effect is a heavier police presence at schools. Tusk said officers will keep checking schools into next week, in part because children exposed to the stories of the past attacks might be tempted to imitate them.
The week also showed how quickly rumors can disrupt daily life. Talk of a coordinated "bloody Friday" circulated online and in the media, and dozens of schools closed for the day. The BBC said the rumors stemmed from a supposed online challenge.
Tusk said society as a whole has work to do, and that parents and teachers have a particular role. He said they should talk with children about what they see online and explain that fascination with, and membership in, such online practices can lead to very negative consequences.
What happens next
Police checks at schools across Poland are due to continue into next week, according to Tusk. Officials have not announced further measures in the reports available so far.
