Enlarge image

Policeman (symbolic image)

Photo: Arne Dedert/dpa

A police operation at a high school in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is causing a stir.

Three officers were alerted to messages that a 16-year-old had posted on a social network.

According to a statement, the police describe the event as follows: The incident occurred on February 27th.

The head of a Ribnitz high school was made aware of the student's contributions by email from a whistleblower.

The man reported to the local station and said that it was about “content that was presumably relevant to state security.”

Two police officers and a colleague then drove to the school and looked at the email.

These were screenshots of posts.

The initial suspicion of a crime was not confirmed.

This was seen as “free expression of opinion,” said a police spokeswoman.

»Informative discussion with a preventive character«

Nevertheless, the officials, together with the school management, decided to speak to the 16-year-old.

It was an “informative discussion with a preventative nature”.

It was carried out because the line “between permitted and criminal behavior is sometimes narrow,” said the police.

The conversation took place with the school management.

The student was “understanding”.

Her mother was also informed and the reason for the operation was “comprehensively explained”.

The mother spoke to the right-wing newspaper “Junge Freiheit” about the incident and expressed outrage: “I am horrified.” Her daughter had only posted a “Smurfs video” on TikTok.

»It says that the Smurfs and Germany have something in common: The Smurfs are blue and so is Germany.

That was probably a funny AfD advertising post." The daughter also once posted "that Germany is not a place, but a home."

The police are not providing any information about the content of the videos.

The school left a short-term request unanswered.

“Incredibly angry”

According to the article, the mother said that the three officers “suddenly appeared in the classroom” and picked up the girl.

"That's what made me so incredibly angry." The police present it differently: the headmaster asked the 16-year-old out of class while the officers waited in the hallway.

The police officers were not noticed by the classmates in the classroom.

Afterwards, according to the mother, her daughter was “escorted through school” as if “she was a criminal.”

Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD), who was questioned about this by an AfD member of the state parliament, said that the classmates were in their classroom.

"It was a lesson, which means you didn't walk through the school past all the students, they were all in their classes." But the police themselves admitted: It cannot be ruled out that the police operation at the high school was carried out by others people “was perceived publicly”.

The police did not provide any specific information about what was said in the conversation.

According to the newspaper report, the mother said: "And then the police officers said to my daughter that, for their own protection, the officers would like to ask her not to post such posts in the future." When asked, the police spokeswoman said that she could not confirm this There are no statements in the documents available to her.

The police explained that the aim was to protect the student from possible hostility that would arise from her activities on social networks.

According to the spokeswoman, they explained to the student that freedom of expression is a valuable asset.

However, this only applies as long as no crimes are committed with it.

The student was “shown in an understanding way” where the boundaries were.

“The whole thing seems outrageous,” said the designated CDU parliamentary group leader Daniel Peters in the Schwerin state parliament.

Even if he couldn't gain anything from the content of the post, the explanations given by the state government so far are very unsatisfactory.

He expects Education Minister Simone Oldenburg (Left) and Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD) to clarify the entire process as quickly as possible at a special meeting.

The Bundestag member for the Vorpommern-Rügen-Greifswald constituency and AfD state spokesman Leif-Erik Holm spoke of a real scandal.

He claimed that “the anti-right hysteria is now taking unbearable forms.”

Interior Minister Pegel said in the state parliament that if the police were called, they would come.

He sees no difficulties with the operation.

The police officers acted in such a way that no one was stigmatized.

Pegel: "I do believe that proportionality was maintained." However, he admitted: "One is welcome to have a discussion as to whether colleagues should then move away and come back again."

The school is apparently now the target of hate messages.

Due to numerous emails and threatening calls to the school, the state police are now investigating, according to the Ministry of Education.

The Neubrandenburg police headquarters announced on

The school principal had been threatened, said a police spokeswoman, and an unknown person was being investigated.

him/jpz/dpa