German police took a 16-year-old schoolgirl out of her class after she was denounced by her headteacher for expressing political sympathies with right-wing party AfD in a harmless Smurf video. The incident has caused a national scandal in Germany. Now Loretta and her mother, Annett B., speak out publicly for the first time in a interview with conservative weekly Junge Freiheit. The girl feels humiliated; her mother fears for political freedom and civil rights in Germany.
Mrs. B., as a mother, would you ever have thought such a thing possible?
Annett: No, never in my life. It’s unbelievable what was done to my daughter!
Loretta, how are you?
Loretta: I’m doing well again now. I’m overwhelmed by the solidarity I’ve received on social media from complete strangers.
Mrs. B., the interior minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Christian Pegel (SPD), said in the state parliament on Thursday that the police operation against Loretta was “proportionate.“
Annett: Please, my daughter was virtually taken away in front of everyone! And Mr. Pegel says that she wasn’t put in handcuffs after all. That’s really cynical!
When confronted with the allegations, the police defended themselves by saying that the classmates in Loretta’s class “didn’t even notice the officers.“
Annett: Numerous pupils were eyewitnesses. At no time did they seem to have thought about how the matter could be discussed discreetly and anonymously.
Loretta, what was it really like?
Loretta: My mother is right. I felt everyone’s stinging eyes on me. It was the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me.
Annett: You can criticize our conservative political views, you can reject them, find them wrong and reprehensible, we respect that. But to call the police because of a pupil’s opinion—that’s simply unbelievable!
And then to take her out of class and escort her through the school like a criminal and, on top of that, to spread the word in the press afterwards that it was necessary to conduct a kind of ‘endangerment talk’ (a preventive police measure) with her and thus portray a completely innocent minor as a potential criminal in front of the whole world—do these people actually realize what they are doing?
According to Section 13 of the police law of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where you live, such an ‘endangerment talk’ is justified in order to “ward off dangers that threaten public safety or order.“
Annett: My daughter’s political opinion does not threaten “public safety or order“ of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern! My God, she posted a Smurf video and a map of Germany on TikTok several months ago!
Loretta, why did you do that?
Loretta: Because I wanted to support the AfD a little bit, because they’re being put down everywhere else. I think that’s unfair. So I posted a few Smurfs together with a map of Germany on which the federal states are colored different shades of blue depending on the AfD state election results and wrote: “The Smurfs are blue—and so is Germany!“
That can’t possibly be everything.
Loretta: I also posted on TikTok that Germany is not just a place, but that Germany is home—and even for many nationalities living in this beautiful country.
Please Loretta, if a 16 year old thinks that Germany is her home, then, your mother is right, it is not a threat to public safety. So: what about, for example, calls for violence, subversion, hatred of minorities or incitement to hatred?
Annett: Excuse me, what kind of person do you think Loretta is?
Something must have happened to justify such a police operation.
Loretta: The police spoke of “incitement to hatred.”
In what way?
Loretta: Well, because of the Smurfs, the map of Germany, and “Germany is home.”
That doesn’t make any sense.
Loretta: I posted other things on TikTok, like that AfD party leader Alice Weidel is my role model, or AfD-politician Björn Höcke’s quote “You raise your children to be sheep and let wolves into the country,” because that’s exactly what I’m afraid of as a girl! But they weren’t mentioned by the police.
Why don’t you tell us from the beginning, what exactly happened?
Loretta: It was on February 27, a Tuesday, just before ten: We were having chemistry lessons, acids and bases. We saw a police car drive up through the window. Three officers got out. They enter the school. Shortly afterwards, school principal Zimmermann is standing in the doorway.
That means, contrary to what this newspaper initially reported online, the officers didn’t enter the room?
Loretta: No, they stayed in the hallway and Mr. Zimmermann asked me to come out.
Did the officers really stay so discreetly in the background that they were not visible to your classmates, as the police claimed?
Loretta: No, that’s not true. There was a knock at the door and Mr. Zimmermann came in, opening the door so wide that the rest of the class could clearly see that there were three officers standing there. We all thought, what’s going on now? And then my name came up—I immediately realized what it was all about.
Why, if your TikTok videos were harmless?
Loretta: Because they’re the only thing I could be accused of, since they were my posts for the AfD and many like to denounce them as ‘anti-constitutional.’ So I walked out and then I went to the staff room: one policeman in front of me, one behind me, one to the side and Mr. Zimmermann on the other side at an angle.
Like a suspect who might trying to run off?
Loretta: I felt a bit like that.
Did the police officers perhaps position themselves like that by chance?
Loretta: Maybe, I don’t know. It’s possible.
Or, on the contrary, were they demonstratively emphasizing the severity of the police action?
Loretta: That’s also possible, I really don’t know. I only know what I experienced and that was being led through the school, surrounded by police officers, through the atrium where at least two senior classes were sitting: All voices fell silent and everyone stared at me—it was really, really uncomfortable.
Thank goodness we finally reached the staff room. But unfortunately, Mr. Zimmermann’s secretary, our janitors and a teacher were still there, which was again very embarrassing for me, because what would they think if I was led in like that?
What exactly did the police officers say to you?
Loretta: That what I would have done had no criminal relevance.
So you didn’t give any reasons for the whole thing?
Loretta: Yes, as I said, there was talk of incitement of the people and, I think, anti-constitutionality.
What now? It was just said that there was no criminal offense?
Loretta: I didn’t understand that either and said that the AfD is not an anti-constitutional or right-wing extremist party. When I said that, I noticed in the corner of my eye how Mr. Zimmermann just rolled his eyes. One of the police officers also said that I had already shown “too much national pride“ on TikTok.
So you weren’t really accused of anything other than expressing your opinion?
Loretta: Yes.
And with what consequences, I mean, what did that amount to? What did the police officers want?
Loretta: Well, that I shouldn’t do that in future.
To express your political opinion freely?
Loretta: Yes, on the Internet.
Annett: Look, I can’t believe that! So much for freedom of expression and democracy.
So there’s nothing wrong with you, yet the police pull you out of class in front of everyone and demand that you renounce your basic constitutional and civil right to freedom of expression in future. Is that really the whole story, Loretta, surely you haven’t left anything out?
Loretta: They then took my personal details and wanted to know where they could find my mother, her phone number and so on.
And you demanded their names and service numbers and told them you were going to lodge a legal complaint for harassment and discrimination?
Loretta: No, I promised them what they wanted.
Why did you do that? If your description is correct, it was extra-legal, political intimidation.
Loretta: Because I stopped making the videos anyway.
Why?
Loretta: Because they kept getting deleted months ago, even though I had read up on them and made sure I didn’t accidentally post anything unauthorized. But it didn’t help and it’s no fun when everything you’ve worked hard to create disappears again. While, by the way, AfD criticism and anti-AfD agitation remains on Tiktok, for example: “AfDler töten” (“Kill AfDers“)
Excuse me?
Loretta: At one of the many anti-AfD-demonstrations in recent weeks there was a banner with this demand. A photo of it was uploaded to Tiktok by a number of people, others even wrote it there themselves.
What about the ‘endangerment talk’ that the police spoke of? What threat to the security of the state and order did they use to justify the measure?
Loretta: They said they didn’t know what kind of person I was, whether I might “kick the shit out of others.”
Was it difficult to convince the officers that you weren’t planning to knock other people’s teeth out?
Loretta: No, that’s why they then said it was for my own protection.
Oh, so you’re supposed to give up your freedom of expression for your own good. Because otherwise something might happen?
Loretta: Well, otherwise something could happen to me.
They threatened you?
Loretta: No, I think they meant third parties.
Annett: After they did everything they could to make my child look like a right-wing extremist perpetrator of violence in public, I now actually have this fear! Loretta is a great person with a strong character who, as we have taught her, treats others with respect and is tolerant of other beliefs and opinions. I have never seen Loretta insult, put down, or even bully anyone for no reason.
And otherwise I’d be the first one on the pinnacle! But I don’t need to worry about that, she simply wouldn’t do anything like that! And that’s why it’s completely out of the question that my daughter would ever have posted anything even remotely right-wing. Even the principal could have recognized that. Incidentally, people always talk about right-wing extremism, but nobody talks about left-wing extremism being just as bad.
Mrs. B., was your daughter to be publicly humiliated and paraded in order to set an example or do you think this interpretation is exaggerated?
Annett: I think they wanted to make an example of her: “Look, we’re doing this with pupils who aren’t politically in line with us!“ After all, the school had just launched the ‘Strengthening Democracy’ project, which is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is close to the SPD. But politics also includes an opposition, because without different opinions there is no democracy. In my opinion, democracy was trampled underfoot in our case.
So will you take legal action against the police?
Annett: For me, the real blame lies with Mr. Zimmermann, the police couldn’t ignore his call and, despite all the criticism of their actions, were basically just doing their job. But how could he even call them instead of contacting the parents first, if there had been a problem at all?
Especially as the school rules state in black and white that in the event of misconduct, a discussion must always be sought with the parents first! It also states that all measures must be checked for proportionality. Both were ignored to the detriment of our daughter!
Why?
Annett: I asked Mr. Zimmermann the same question after I was finally able to reach him by phone.
That means he didn’t even contact you in the second step—although he said the case was so serious that even the police had to be involved?
Annett: No, he didn’t. My phone call with him was also fruitless, he was hiding behind the fact that the Ministry of Education had issued an instruction a few weeks ago that he had to follow.
What kind of instruction?
Annett: To inform the Ministry of Education of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the state education authority in suspected cases and to notify the police in order to have the respective suspected case checked for right-wing extremist, anti-constitutional content. But why don’t we parents know about this?
I now hope that the AfD in the state parliament might be able to clear this up. It is very important to me for my daughter and all other children and their parents that it is clarified who is responsible for this approach at the school and that consequences are drawn from it.
Because the fact is, if there are such guidelines, anyone can make malicious or false allegations about a classmate and get them into trouble—if it’s even worth a Smurf post that the police are called out: this is a free pass for bullying. If schools call the police without at least involving the parents at the same time, then the red line has clearly been crossed!
The great solidarity we are now experiencing shows how angry people are that the state is apparently already politically attacking and persecuting children.
What do you want from the principal?
Annett: After it turned out that my daughter had done nothing wrong, I would have expected him to apologize to her publicly and to make it clear to her classmates that the initial suspicion of right-wing extremism was unfounded.
Loretta: What really scares me is that I did the TikToks in my free time. So why am I being publicly reprimanded by him and at my school? Because the ‘occasion’ has nothing to do with it! Because at school I consistently remain neutral and keep my opinions to myself.
Annett: Isn’t that terrible? We’ve already come that far! The “Beutelsbach Consensus“ applies in Germany, according to which it is the duty of schools to educate pupils in a politically neutral way and not to “overwhelm“ them. Above all, they should be enabled to form their own opinions, to express them freely and to accept dissenting opinions.
Loretta, what would happen otherwise?
Loretta: I would be labeled as right-wing again.
What does that mean, would you be disadvantaged, graded lower, maybe even threatened by classmates?
Loretta: I can’t say that, because apart from Mr. Zimmermann’s police action against me, I’ve only had experiences like that once before, when a teacher asked me after class if I didn’t want to reconsider my political stance because her husband was of a different nationality. She said whether I really wanted her husband and his family to be sent back to their country of origin. I told her that wasn’t true! Nobody who lives here legally, works and has integrated will be sent anywhere, that’s not what AfD stands for.
Your whole school knows now, what does that mean for you?
Loretta: I was really scared at first, but apart from the fact that some politically left-wing classmates don’t like me, fortunately everything is the same as before. Even on the part of the teachers, even though—apart from two or three who are neutral—they all think left-wing and make no secret of their opinion on the AfD in front of us students. In my class, on the other hand, most of them even like the fact that I had the courage to speak my mind openly, at least on TikTok.
Mrs. B., as a mother, what do you hope for the future?
Annett: I would like to see schools advocate more for mutual respect in dealing with each other and tolerance towards other political opinions—as long as they are not extremist in either direction—and not just shout for tolerance when it comes to gendering and different genders.
Annett and Loretta B.*: The 16-year-old lives with her parents in Ribnitz-Damgarten (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) where the ninth-grader attends the Richard-Wossidlo-Gymnasium. *Surname abbreviated for reasons of personal privacy.
This interview was conducted and published by Junge Freiheit. It appears here with kind permission.
