Ania committed suicide in Gdansk
Anna Halman (* 21st June 1992 ; † 21st October 2006 in Danzig District Gdańsk Kiełpino Górne ) - Ania is the pet name - was a student of Gdansk Gymnasium , which after sexual assault and bullying in their class that took life . Her case sparked a broad discussion about cyber bullying in the Polish school system .
Background of the suicide
On October 21, 2006, the girl was asked by her worried mother if anything had happened to her; Ania replied evasively, and a few hours later she hanged herself. Police investigations, which also extended to the school of the fourteen-year-olds, revealed that the class had been left alone by the teacher for about twenty minutes the day before. During this time she was held in front of the entire class by five classmates, stripped and touched, whereby the perpetrators faked a rape . The whole thing was recorded by them with a cell phone and should later be posted on the Internet. Although she cried and asked for help, she was left alone; the whole class watched and enjoyed themselves.
According to some of her classmates, she had been harassed and bullied a number of times by the same students after refusing to be friends with one of them. However, because she was very shy and reserved, she had never talked about it.
Importance of the case
In Poland, the reactions of the immediate surroundings are regarded as scandalous : On the one hand, the school administration claimed that there were no signs of any problem - although classmates had even reported such incidents to the teachers. On the other hand, not only did several students, but also residents of the village, from which both Ania and the five perpetrators come, see only "the usual children's games" in the incident; the pupils are innocent "victims" who should only be punished because the girl could not muster "understanding for such fun". In addition, the Archbishop of Gdańsk Tadeusz Gocłowski was severely attacked for speaking about a suicide victim in his speech at the funeral. Last but not least, the court that sentenced the young people to three months in prison was also attacked.
The significance of this case lies in the fact that the suicide - but especially the downplaying reactions to it - found an unusually large echo in the Polish press. It is emphasized that the coercion took place in front of the whole class, was filmed for the Internet and was committed by people who knew the victim (one of the students was Ania's cousin); all that would have given the girl, such as B. the psychologist Wisanna Szymańska emphasized, allegedly left no room for another decision. The psychologist and journalist Piotr Pacewicz wrote: “It was a rape. A fake one, in reality it was in no way different from an actual one ”. It was particularly worrying for him that the majority of his classmates viewed sexual coercion as an amusing and completely normal act.
Consequences
As a result of this incident, a number of surveys were carried out in Poland. They found that sexual assault of young women in schools appears to be widespread in Poland; it already seems difficult to even address this in public .
On the political side, the Polish Minister of Education Roman Giertych reacted by launching a program that opposes the tolerance of violence. The case of Ania has led to a discussion about a new phenomenon beyond Poland, namely also in the Czech Republic and Slovakia : the publication of violence against classmates using camera phones and the Internet.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bożena Aksamit, Piotr Głuchowski: Odpowiedziała: Dam sobie radę, mamo , Gazeta Wyborcza, October 31, 2006 (Polish)
- ↑ Tysiąc osób żegnało gimnazjalistkę z Gdańska , video on the funeral, October 27, 2006 (Polish)
- ↑ Pikieta w obronie gimnazjalistów , January 12, 2007 (Polish)
- ↑ Piotr Pacewicz: Ania została sama ( Memento of February 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Gazeta Wyborcza, October 25, 2006 (Polish)
- ↑ Agnieszka Domańska: The Shadow in Our Schools ( Memento from November 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), December 20, 2006 (English)
- ↑ Adam Easton: Polish suicide sparks school plan , BBC news, November 3, 2006 (English)