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Demonstration in front of the school authority in Cottbus in mid-March
Photo: Frank Hammerschmidt/dpa
The head of the school authority had already ruled out a racist background, but the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior has now provisionally classified the violence committed by a teacher against two students in Cottbus as “xenophobic”.
“For xenophobic reasons, the accused teacher physically attacked the injured student by kicking him,” says the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior’s follow-up report on right-wing extremist violence and crimes in 2023. The victim was a 13-year-old boy from the Russian Federation. On the same day, the teacher pushed a table against a 12-year-old boy from Syria and three days earlier "physically acted upon" the 13-year-old.
The incidents occurred in September 2023 but only became public in March of this year. The accused teacher was initially transferred and was only later suspended.
The Interior Ministry's classification was made in response to a small question from the Left Party in the state parliament. According to the RBB, these are initial statistics and the classification could still change. Police investigations into a possible racist background are still ongoing.
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