6/9/2024 Updated yesterday at 09:15 | Source: ČT24
Events, comments: Anonymous threats in schools (source: ČT24)
“The information exchanged with our partners indicates that it is definitely a coordinated attack, which with a high degree of probability has some foreign origin,” said Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan (STAN) in Thursday’s Událosty, comments on the wave of threats aimed at domestic schools. He emphasized that there was no way to prove that the threat was real.
The minister said that it is a sophisticated attack, while one of the investigative versions also goes abroad. He mentioned that they had similar experiences in Slovakia and earlier also in the Baltic states. The Austrian did not want to give a specific answer to the question of whether the tracks lead to Russia. But the suspicion is said to exist.
“I am very cautious about communicating any conclusions,” the Deputy Prime Minister let himself be heard. “Getting excited from the illusion that Russia would perhaps have any positive emotion towards us should probably be a society-wide thing,” he added. He has already pointed out that the aim of the threats is to make society uncertain and to bring fear and nervousness into it. According to the minister, the search for the perpetrator will be difficult and will require international cooperation.
Tomáš Kubík, Deputy Chief of Police for the Criminal Police and Investigation Service, confirmed that the criminal investigators are dealing with several investigative versions, while the one with a foreign background is “one of the more likely”. “We do not remember such a massive attack in the history of the Czech Republic,” he admitted.
“The perpetrator or perpetrators use all kinds of tools to hide their true identity in the Internet space. From the way they use the tools, we can conclude that he is not a complete layman,” he added. He was said to have been taken aback by the scale of the attack. “The public needs to be prepared to be sufficiently resistant, because we can expect attacks of this type in the future,” believes Kubík. According to him, vigilance and a cool head are important.
Another manual is heading to schools
The Austrian emphasized that in no case has it been shown that the threat is real, however, the security forces do not underestimate it. Schools are said to receive another manual with recommended procedures on Friday. He also talked about the need to calm the children down. “To teach them that if they see a police officer in the corridor, it is not an immediate danger, but rather a certainty that they are safe at this moment,” he said.
Almost five hundred schools received a threatening e-mail on Thursday. At least in some of them, the author threatened to explode. According to the police, the manner of the threat is very similar to that of the previous two days. On Tuesday, emails claimed the schools were mined. The response of schools to threatening e-mails is gradually changing. While they are evacuating some buildings, in other places they are continuing to teach after checking the premises.
Psychologist: For most children, leaving them at home is not the solution
Psychologist Zuzana Masopustová mentioned in Friday’s Studio 6 that adults should explain to children that this is a situation where someone is trying to make people’s lives worse, complicate the functioning of the school, maybe even disrupt trust in each other. “To say that usually such threats are made by people who do not know how to solve conflicts or problems in any other way, in this case it may not be one person, but it is an effort to make us not trust each other,” she pointed out.
Psychologist Masopustová on the challenging start of the new school year (source: ČT24)
According to her, hierarchization of responsibilities can help with certain anxiety in children. “Explain that it is not up to the child to guard the risk, that there is a parent, teacher, school principal who is in contact with the police. And it is the police that evaluates the risks,” she added, adding that it is essential for the child to understand that society and the family take care of him. Although, according to the expert, it should also sound like she understands his concerns and it is important to talk about them.
Masopustová also mentioned that leaving them at home is not a solution for most children. “It’s not optimal because we don’t know how long it’s going to last,” she said, noting of course that in a child who was already anxious, such an event could trigger a major anxiety response. In that case, according to her, a day at home can help. “But it certainly shouldn’t just be that I leave the child at home, but we should use that day to help him find self-confidence, trust in the people around him and that adults will take care of him,” she advises.
