Context: parallel investigations following the knife attack at a school in Bistrița and pressure for safety measures
Following the incident at the „Ștefan cel Mare” Secondary School in Bistrița (October 19), police opened a separate criminal investigation into the disclosure of non-public data after footage captured by surveillance cameras entered the public domain and was distributed on social media and in the press, including the unblurred material. The leadership of the School Inspectorate maintained that the footage had not left the school, while investigators were checking how it had been obtained and disseminated.
At the same time, education trade unions called for urgent protective measures, criticizing the system’s underfunding and, in particular, the elimination of security guard positions in schools, as well as the lack of school psychologists. Moreover, the interim Minister of Education called for legislative changes to provide criminal-law protection for threatened or assaulted education staff, legal assistance and psychological support, as well as mechanisms for rapidly restricting access to schools by persons considered dangerous; the authorities also checked information concerning threats posted on TikTok.
At hearings in Parliament, the newly appointed minister responsible for pre-university education, Sorin Ionescu, advocated closer cooperation between schools and public safety institutions and argued that schools should develop clear prevention policies; at the same time, he said that identifying radicalization trends does not fall within the competence of the Ministry of Education.
