The picture could hardly be bleaker on this rainy January morning: red and white police barrier tape stretches across the entire width of the entrance to the commercial schools in Tecklenburger Land. The site looks deserted, nobody showed up for class this Wednesday because the anthracite-colored building in the center of Ibbenbüren in Westphalia has been a crime scene since last afternoon.
Shortly before three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Münster public prosecutor’s office, a 17-year-old student entered the building, sought out a 55-year-old teacher who was alone in a classroom and is said to have stabbed her with a knife. He then called the police on 911. When the officials arrived at the school on Wilhelmstrasse, he turned himself in without resistance and allowed himself to be arrested. Since then, the Murder Commission in Münster has been involved in the investigation.
“What bothered me the most were the comments on Tiktok”
Meanwhile, the forecourt of the neighboring vocational college seems to be operating normally. But half of the students who would otherwise spend the break there are not there today: commercial schools and vocational colleges share the same schoolyard. The young people in hoodies and quilted jackets, who are standing here in the morning cold, look with mild interest at the entrance of the neighboring building, in front of which a TV reporter is trying to collect quotes.
“We only found out about all this from the media,” says Julia Kortlüke, who is taking the “Design” course at the vocational college. The reaction of the classmates was very different. Some of those who were particularly sensitive to the news stayed home. “What disturbed me the most were the comments on Tiktok,” says Julia Kortlüke. “There’s a lot of speculation about the nationality of the perpetrator, although nobody really knows anything and that’s not relevant at all.”
Her classmate Mizgin Iciger explains that although she knows some of the alleged perpetrator’s classmates from the neighboring school, she doesn’t know anything about him himself. “He only came after classes were over here,” she explains. “The commercial school even closes ten minutes earlier.”
Protect teachers better against acts of violence
The killing of the teacher is the second deadly knife attack in the Steinfurt district within six weeks. On November 30, a suspected mentally ill 43-year-old stabbed the leaseholder of a gas station in Lengerich, just 15 kilometers south-east of Ibbenbüren. The man succumbed to his injuries in hospital three days later.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger reacted with dismay to the act of violence. “The violent death of the teacher is stunned. We must do everything we can to better protect teachers from violence,” she told the news portal t-online. The FDP politician added that it is unacceptable that teachers are regularly insulted, threatened and attacked.
In the Ibbenbüren case, initial witness interviews revealed that the 17-year-old suspect had continuous problems at school. He is said to have repeatedly come into conflict with teachers. The school administration is said to have given the young person a one-day expulsion from school on Tuesday morning. The accused has not yet commented on the crime, according to the Münster public prosecutor’s office. The motive situation is therefore still unclear. The body of the teacher who was killed was to be autopsied later on Wednesday.