Government of Upper Bavaria: Operator of illegal school is said to be out of "lateral thinkers"

In the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim, representatives from the so-called lateral thinkers and imperial citizen scene may have tried to set up their own school.

The educational institution on a farm in Schechen was closed by the authorities after information from the population.

The operator of the illegal school could be classified in the "lateral thinkers" and "Reich citizens" direction, said the spokesman for the government of Upper Bavaria, Wolfgang Rupp, on Thursday.

This is evident from the documents of the institution.

“There are some clear indications of that

'Querdenker' and 'Reichsbürger' typical language usage ”, he explained.

Whether the parents of the 50 or so children taught at the school can also be assigned to these scenes cannot yet be said.

Children from first to ninth grade

According to Bayerischer Rundfunk, the founder of the unapproved educational institution rejected the charge that it was a "lateral thinker school".

The woman said it was a Russian foundation school.

Among the parents of the children are "among other things herbal and music educators, but also shamans," reported the Bavarian radio, referring to the woman.

She does not want her name to be mentioned in the reports.

According to the spokesman for the government of Upper Bavaria, it is a "self-appointed foundation".

They also wanted to sign school contracts with their parents, and there were also information leaflets for the facility.

Accordingly, the operators wanted to teach the children on the farm against payment.

Boys and girls from the first to the ninth grade went to the facility.

In front of the farm there was a simple sign with the inscription "Freedom needs courage".

The educational institution was then referred to as a “place of holistic encounter”.

The pupils are said to be children who have been withdrawn from classroom teaching at various schools by their parents because of the mandatory corona tests and the mask requirement. In these cases, children in Bavaria currently have to be looked after by their school in distance learning, for example with the provision of teaching material and supervision via online video switching. “Up to now, it was not known in distance learning that the children were absent,” said Rupp.

Authorities closed the unapproved school on Wednesday.

On Monday there were initial indications that a school facility was being operated in an old farm, the spokesman said.

The facility in Schechen is said to have accepted students from all over the county and beyond.

How long lessons have been offered there is unclear.

According to the authorities, the school would not have received a permit even if it had applied for a private, so-called substitute school.

A neighbor reported that the farm had already been relocated in the spring.

"The last two months have been really busy," said Jacqueline S. of the German Press Agency.

Up to 40 cars came to the rural property.

"That seemed a bit suspicious to us."

According to her, neighbors exchanged information about what was going on there, especially since they were school-age children.

There were no concrete references to “Reich citizens” or “lateral thinkers”.

"But we already thought that it had to be something like that, because they were all together without masks and in a small space," she said.

Case reminiscent of the school of the "Twelve Tribes" sect

The authorities had also received information about the illegal school from one of the parents themselves.

He officially de-registered his child from a state school and registered it at the non-approved private school, said Rupp.

"That was a bit stupid strategically."

The case is reminiscent of the school that the “Twelve Tribes” sect once ran in the northern Swabian district of Donau-Ries.

There, however, the Free State allowed the sect to run a private school after parents refused to send their children to state schools.

However, the authorities had not looked so closely at the school for years.

In 2013, the sect's replacement school license was withdrawn.

In addition, it became known that beating the children was one of the usual educational measures at the sect school.

Several members of the sect had to answer to the courts, and a teacher at the facility even received a prison sentence without parole.

In addition, the woman did not have the necessary qualifications to even work as a teacher.