Juvenile violence on the rise: Schools strengthen crisis-response training
With aggression among children and teenagers on the rise, Czech schools are stepping up their readiness for crisis situations. Experts say recognising warning signs early and knowing how to respond can help prevent violence and save lives.
The number of violent offences committed by children and teenagers in Czechia is growing. Teachers also report a general increase in aggression, both towards themselves and among pupils.
There is often direct evidence of such incidents, as children record acts of violence on their mobile phones and share the footage online. In some cases, including bullying, the violence can be particularly brutal.
In the first six months of this year, police were called to 830 incidents in schools, 478 of them in primary schools. Of these, 268 were classified as serious displays of aggression with a tendency towards radicalisation. A total of 138 cases were dealt with as criminal offences.
Schools are increasingly equipped with security cameras, alarm buttons and crisis plans. But according to Daniel Vrána, who provides crisis-response training to schools, the key is to recognise warning signs before a situation escalates.
“Prevention is the most important thing, in my view. The best outcome is when an attack does not happen at all. The path towards a student becoming radicalised follows similar, or even identical, patterns in most cases. If we train staff and students to look out for these warning signs, we have a good chance of preventing a potential attack,” he says.
Warning signs can include significant changes in behaviour or appearance, blaming others for one's own problems, and developing an increasingly entrenched ‘me versus them’ view of the world.
Recognising these signals and taking problems seriously rather than letting them slide is the main message schools and teachers are now receiving from crisis-response trainers.
Teachers are not routinely trained to deal with such situations, which means they may underestimate problems or overlook recurring warning signs for too long. According to Vrána, schools can respond to similar incidents in very different ways.
“I can mention two schools which dealt with almost identical situations involving an aggressive student in very different ways. In one case, they called the police, who took the student away for questioning. In the other, they took him to the head teacher’s office, told him not to do it again and let the matter slide,” he says.
Vrána says practical training is essential. Schools may have guidelines and crisis plans in place, but unless staff practise how to respond in real-life situations, they may struggle to act effectively under pressure.
Security cameras, turnstiles and master keys have become commonplace in schools. But Vrána says that ultimately, the human factor remains decisive.
“There are several misconceptions surrounding these situations. One is that once it happens, nothing can be done, which is not true. Another is that the attacker suddenly snaps, which is not always true. In many cases, the person plans the act for weeks or months in advance, even talks about it or sends signals on social networks. There is also the assumption that the person must be mentally disturbed, which is often not true either. Such attackers generally know exactly what they are doing. And then there is the idea that the police will help. They will, but until they arrive, you are on your own.”
Training also covers situations beyond the threat of physical violence. Teachers are being taught how to respond to panic attacks, self-harm and cases in which a child confides that they are being bullied.
Crisis counsellor Veronika Müllerová stresses the importance of communication and creating an environment in which pupils feel safe enough to speak openly about their problems.
“A crisis is always the result of something, which is why prevention is so important. We need to work on the atmosphere in schools and in individual classes, so that students are not afraid to speak up. Traditional measures include confidential letterboxes and prevention teams. These should consist of people whom both students and teachers trust – people they feel safe confiding in about a problem. That would help us identify these issues at an early stage,” Müllerová says.
Crisis-response training is not yet a standard part of university-level teacher education. Teachers who are unsure how to handle a difficult situation can turn to one of around 30 free helplines operating in Czechia for advice and support.
Serious incidents of violence in Czech schools:
In 2004 a 16-year-old student at a school in Svitavy stabbed his sixty-year-old teacher to death with a knife in class. The teacher was stabbed 18 times.
In 2011, a 15-year-old student at the Chomutov high school used a meat mallet and a knife to attack the school secretary. The woman suffered several blows to the head, but survived. The attacker was pacified by a school official before the police arrived.
In 2012, a 16-year-old student at a secondary school in Rakovník attacked his teacher with a knife during break. He stabbed her in the back, causing serious injuries. The teacher was airlifted to hospital and survived the attack.
In 2022 a 19-year-old secondary school student killed his teacher with a machette over alleged bullying and poor grades. He received 12 years in jail.
In 2023, a 12-year-old in a school in Příbram attacked his classmate with a knife. It later emerged that he had a list of victims he wanted to kill.
In December of 2023 a lone shooter went on a rampage at the Prague Faculty of Arts, killing 14 people and injuring 25. He was one of the university’s own students and had hidden a cache of weapons on the school grounds.
In 2024 girl in primary school stabbed two classmates in Domažlice before she was pacified by staff.
In 2025 a 13-year-old boy at the Rudolfovo school turned a gun on his classmates and then his teacher as she wrestled to disarm him. He pulled the trigger twice, but fortunately no shot was fired.
