A lose-lose situation
Because both the classes I usually go to on Mondays were cancelled yesterday, today was my first day back at school for the week. I don't normally buy a paper over the weekend, and so I was surprised to hear the teachers talking about the school being in the paper and what bad publicity it was. Seeing that there was a letter on official school stationary posted on the message board, I went over and read it.
As far as I can tell, here's what happened: Last Friday evening, there was a party for the students in the main hall. According to the letter and the newspaper reports I've been able to find on the internet, a group of Arab and Turkish students who go to a school nearby, a school less prestigious in the GBO (in the weird German education system that I don't even think the Germans understand, this other school is more of a vocational training place) had been hanging around the door. They wanted to come in and join the party, but the acting principal had told the security around the door to keep them out, as this was a GBO-student party only. When the group at the door refused to leave and started to get rough, one of the student's parents, a police officer (not on duty) stepped in and tried to help. Apparently, they attacked him as a group and injured him very severely. Seven of them were arrested, although four have since been released. Here's an article from one of the newspapers, if anyone wants to read about it: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/archiv/22.01.2007/3035300.asp.
I can see, obviously, why the teachers are worried about bad publicity. It doesn't look good when the school's name is connected with violence. And it's such a dismal story, too. During my reading on the internet, I came across a right-wing website calling for the heads of the teenagers who did it and arguing that incidents like this will keep on happening unless good citizens support the expulsion of the Turks from Germany. So it's really just another depressing chapter in a long story about racism, hatred, violence, and so forth. When I was talking to a teaching assistant in Paris a few weeks ago, I'd asked her about her school in the suburbs, and whether she felt safe after all the riots in the Parisian suburs last year. And now I wake up to find the violence on my back step.
As far as I can tell, here's what happened: Last Friday evening, there was a party for the students in the main hall. According to the letter and the newspaper reports I've been able to find on the internet, a group of Arab and Turkish students who go to a school nearby, a school less prestigious in the GBO (in the weird German education system that I don't even think the Germans understand, this other school is more of a vocational training place) had been hanging around the door. They wanted to come in and join the party, but the acting principal had told the security around the door to keep them out, as this was a GBO-student party only. When the group at the door refused to leave and started to get rough, one of the student's parents, a police officer (not on duty) stepped in and tried to help. Apparently, they attacked him as a group and injured him very severely. Seven of them were arrested, although four have since been released. Here's an article from one of the newspapers, if anyone wants to read about it: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/archiv/22.01.2007/3035300.asp.
I can see, obviously, why the teachers are worried about bad publicity. It doesn't look good when the school's name is connected with violence. And it's such a dismal story, too. During my reading on the internet, I came across a right-wing website calling for the heads of the teenagers who did it and arguing that incidents like this will keep on happening unless good citizens support the expulsion of the Turks from Germany. So it's really just another depressing chapter in a long story about racism, hatred, violence, and so forth. When I was talking to a teaching assistant in Paris a few weeks ago, I'd asked her about her school in the suburbs, and whether she felt safe after all the riots in the Parisian suburs last year. And now I wake up to find the violence on my back step.
posted by Q at
4:18 PM
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