Experts note rise in school violence - text 2

Experts note rise in school violence

A In the wake of the March 11 school massacre in the German town of Winnenden, where 17-year-old student Tim Kretschmer killed 14 people at the Albertville technical high school, shot another two men at a car dealership while he was on the run and then killed himself in a shootout with police, the amount of violent threats to schools has increased throughout Germany.

B “Usually, we’d get threats of that nature once or twice in the course of several weeks,” said Martin Krems, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of the Sachsen-Anhalt state. “In the two weeks since the massacre, we’ve received about 20.” In the Czech Republic, the scope of the issue is smaller, but cases of attempted school violence are on the rise. Police here have registered three school-targeted violent acts in the two weeks following the Winnenden massacre. The incidents took place in Kladno, Domažlice and, most notably, the east Bohemian town of Nový Bydžov, where a 17-year-old student at the local high school was arrested after threatening to bomb the school March 19.

C Nový Bydžov High School Principal Jaroslav Šedivý said the school will attempt to design a plan enabling the student to receive education while in prison. “It is important to show the student that we still care about his education, even if he should turn out to be guilty,” he said.

D Unlike Czech officials, German authorities discussed their prompt and uncompromising response to the post-Winnenden surge in school violence openly. On March 12, a 22-year-old male who had threatened to shoot students at a Sachsen-Anhalt school received a five-month probation sentence on the same day he was detained. “We take every threat seriously,” Krems said. “Even if you just say these things to scare people, that attitude is potentially dangerous and has to be dealt with in a strict and timely fashion.”

E Public attention to incidents of this nature has increased in the Czech Republic as well. On March 17, a student at a transport high school in Kladno was suspended after he came to class with an air gun and a hunting knife. In Domažlice, a high-school student was charged March 26 with threatening a violent act after writing a school essay in which he described how he wanted to kill his fellow students. Police then found a handwritten order for explosives in his room. He now faces a five-year prison sentence.

nature – povaha

scope – rozsah

shootout – přestřelka

surge – nárůst

suspended – zastaven

to detain – zadržet

wake – probuzení 

1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.

1 Jaroslav Šedivý’s opinion

2 A massacre in Winnenden

3 The scope of massacre threats

4 Violent acts in the Czech Republic

5 German authorities are uncompromised

2) Read the article again and answer the questions.

1 What is the article about?

2 What happened in Winnenden?

3 Does school violence often happen in the Czech Republic?

4 What are examples of violent threats that happened in the Czech Republic?

3) Explain the following words.

1 threat

2 school violence

3 prison

4 guilty

5 to scare people

4) Answer the following questions.

What is school violence? What are types of school violence? Who are the aggressors? What is bullying? What are differences between the victim and the bully?

Adjusted to:

http://www.praguepost.com/news/945-experts-note-rise-in-school-violence.html