The proposed Minister for Education and Research, Sorin Costreie, said on Monday that the knife attack committed by a 7th grade student on a teacher and a colleague, in a school in Bistrita, is a “terrible” situation, which he considers a case of “radicalization”. Costreie stated that he will request information including from the SRI, in order to understand why measures were not taken before the incident, given that there would have been warning signals.
“I called there today, I spoke with the director, I also spoke with the inspector general and the mayor. Both the math teacher, who was in the 6th grade when the attack happened, is ok, she underwent surgery and is ok, it seems that the lung is affected, but also the student who jumped to defend her. So, they are ok, what is not ok is this radicalization situation”, stated Costreie, after the hearings in commission for the position of Minister of Education, according to Agerpres.
He said that “the situation is terrible”, noting that the school must become relevant, which also means educating children about “caring for the other”. He showed that he is in favor of developing some recommendations for teachers and students for such cases.
“I have already spoken with my colleague from the pre-university and we will want to come as quickly as possible, because the idea is not to rush, but to do things right with the status of the student and the status of the teacher in which such situations are caught. But I would go a lot on prevention, because here, at the moment when it has arrived, it is sometimes much too late. Thank God that now we have the two alive, but it could have been much worse. You see, there are other cases, I understand that there was a similar case in Poland. So here we are talking about a pattern, so to speak, but I know the situation to the extent that I know it now, but I will also want data from the SRI, from many other places to understand because we are talking about radicalization. I understand that there were signs beforehand and we need to see exactly why some measures were not taken,” said Costreie.
Regarding the possibility of banning access to social networks for children under 14 years old, Costreie said that he is also taking this measure into account, noting that it will be a European initiative.
“The big problem is not with the forbidden, that sometimes by prohibiting you create the forbidden fruit, the big problem is to prepare our children, including to navigate these social networks and to be there in the virtual and digital environment. So I am much more interested in what I was telling you – this relevant education, including for these cases”, the proposed minister also showed.
Asked about the project announced by social democrat Bogdan Ivan in this regard, Costreie said that he supports it, in principle, as a transitory measure until children are trained to surf social networks. Regarding the possibility of searching children upon entering the school, Sorin Costreie announced that it is possible to change the legislation in this regard.
“Of course – it’s possible and we will analyze with the utmost attention, including this. We know that we have a problem with the security at the school, with many other things related to the security of children and teachers and all the staff (…). So, if necessary, we will reach such measures where, like at the airport or in other environments that will be safe, they will be controlled so that they no longer enter with knives, because today he was with a knife. Thank you realize this can’t be done quickly, we’re talking about metal detectors and things like that, but we’re under this emotional charge right now that I recognize because we’re talking about a colleague of ours who was stabbed and we need to calm down and see exactly what we can do about prevention and to create a much safer environment. verbal which is in a continuous effervescence in society and implicitly in the school as well”, Sorin Costreie also showed.
A seventh-grade student from the “Ştefan cel Mare” secondary school in Bistrita attacked a teacher with a knife on Monday morning and also injured a colleague, according to the County Police Inspectorate (IPJ) Bistrita-Năsăud.
Also read: Why won’t the student who stabbed a teacher and a colleague go to prison? The explanations of judge Cristi Danileț
