Columbiners instead of whales: attack in Buryatia school attributed to social networks
The second massacre in a week: experts say about problems with security and parents’ disregard
The next school attack took place in Russia, this time it was in Buryatia. A senior pupil broke into the educational establishment and with a Molotov cocktail, committed arson, injured a teacher and six seven-graders. Several kids are in a critical condition. Realnoe Vremya tells about the environment of pupils and security problems of educational establishments.
''A Molotov cocktail was thrown into my classroom''
Several attacks in Russian schools took place at once in a week, in Perm, Chelyabinsk Oblast and Buryatia.
On 19 January, a ninth-grader of School No. 5 in Sosnovy Bor settlement that is 20 km far from Ulan-Ude came to the educational establishment with an axe and a Molotov cocktail. Now it's unknown how he entered the building, there is no security staff at the entrance – only old porter women. In the school, the boy threw a bottle with the flammable mixture into one of the classrooms, a fire began, the children scattered.
''I was reciting a poem, I was said to sit down because I knew it well. If I hadn't been said and I had recited it completely, I wouldn't have been here now. It all happened in my classroom. A Molotov cocktail was thrown into my classroom,'' one of the pupils of the burnt class told.
The attacker switched to seventh-graders then. He hit a boy at the back with an axe, battered at a girl's head, cut another girl's finger. The teacher tried to protect the kids, covered them by herself but was injured, she got an open head wound.
There was information about several attackers first. Eyewitnesses told about at least two senior pupils. But the police denied this – the teen was alone.
A criminal case on ''Attempted Assassination of Two or More Minors'' and ''Negligence'' opened.
Law-enforcement agencies gave a version about the relationship of armed attacks at the schools in Perm, Chelyabinsk Oblast (we should remind that a pupil stabbed another one with a knife in one of the regional settlements) and Buryatia that happened during one week. It's supposed they could have been in touch via social networks.
Children's ombudswoman: ''It's a terrifying tendency''
A total of six kids and one teacher were injured. An 11-year-old girl is in a critical condition, told the Emergency Medicine Centre in Buryatia.
''One 11-year-old girl is in a very critical state, she's operated now, she has a traumatic brain injury. Another girl has two fingers amputated. The others are in the operating theatre. They all have injuries from cutting and chopping,'' RIA Novosti cites a medical worker's words.
The names of the three injured kids and teacher became known – it's Maya B. 13 years, Aleksandra B. 13 years, Anton K. 13 years and I. Ramenskaya, Russian language and literature teacher, 41 years.
During detention, the teenager attempted to kill himself by jumping from the window. Now he is also in hospital with injuries. It's told it is ninth-grader of the same school 15-year-old Anton Bichivin. Employees of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and apparatus of the children's ombudswoman urgently headed for Buryatia.
''It's a terrifying tendency. The tragedy in the Perm school took place less than a week ago, an analogous situation is in Buryatia now,'' Children's Ombudswoman under the Russian President Anna Kuznetsova commented on the new attack at school.
According to her, after visiting Perm, her apparatus created a set of recommended measures on prevention of similar situations: ''Now we're finding out why corresponding conclusions on the spot weren't drawn, which was the reason for the repeated incident,'' she added.
Due to the incident, Head of Buryatia Aleksey Tsydenov cancelled his visit to Mongolia, upon arrival, he visited the injured kids in the hospital. In addition, Petersburg microsurgeons went to Ulan-Ude to reattach one of the girls' finger that was chopped.
''What will we teach teachers? How to fight with an axe or a knife?''
Realnoe Vremya surveyed experts about the reasons for more frequent attacks on Russian schools. In the talk to our reporter, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan Ilsur Khadiullin said that, for instance, 192 million rubles were needed at Kazan schools to tighten security measures (organisation of day security).
Speaking at a meeting of the prosecutor's office, the Tatarstan president also urged to pay attention to the dangerous tendency too. Rustam Minnikhanov stressed that the incident also has a mistake of state authorities.