Greifswald: Students fly from school to neo-Nazi greeting!

Greifswald: Students fly from school to neo-Nazi greeting!

A felt step back in the educational landscape is currently evident in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Two students from the Greifswald Fischer School were expelled from school because of a right-wing extremist gesture, the so-called "white power" greeting. This questionable campaign took place during a study trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial in May, where a classmate filmed the incident and spread the material on social networks. This alleged glorification of right-wing extremism not only alerts the school community, but also the Ministry of Education in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which recently learned about the incident, such as [NDR] (https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/mecklenburg-vorpommern/greifswalder-schueler-nonazi-gruss-von-der-Schule ,MvregioGSwald3460.html) reported.

The pending measures of the school management are not very gratifying: the students concerned were suspended and transferred to other schools to achieve the same degree. The students' parents are considering legal action against school reference, which ensures additional tensions. In addition, the school management submitted a criminal complaint because of the incident to set clear signs against right -wing extremist statements.

context and comparable incidents

The concerns about the emergence of extremist guidance in schools are not new. A similar incident occurred recently with students from Görlitz, who also showed the "White Power" greeting during an educational trip on March 13 in the former Nazi extermination camp in Auschwitz. The students from the Scultetus secondary school then received a headmaster reference and have to do social lessons in a workshop for the disabled. According to the headmistress, the students were insightful, but this raises the question of how deeply rooted right -wing extremist ideas in the adolescent is how SPIEGEL reports.

These events are part of a larger trend: student representatives of the East German federal states complain about increasing right -wing extremism in schools. The situation is serious, as reports from student representatives show. The 18-year-old Stefan Tarnow, spokesman for the State Council of Students in Brandenburg, expressed that swastika can even be found in classrooms and that right-wing extremist ideas are often not adequately addressed, as Tagetchau reported.

what has to change?

In response to these alarming changes, the state student councils from several federal states such as Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony are calling for a decisive approach to right -wing extremism and strengthening politics and social studies. An urgent need for further training for teachers who have to be better trained in dealing with such incidents is also seen. Educational institutions not only have to react to extremist statements, but also work preventively so that such incidents do not occur.

concern about right -wing extremist incidents in schools illustrates that the pressure to act is on politics and the educational institutions to create a reliable framework for combating and prevention of extremism. It remains to be hoped that the recent incidents will not only be regarded as individual cases, but as a wake -up call for a serious deal of dealing with this topic in society.