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Teenagers offering "candy" to groundschoolers - what's going on?
Three teenagers (according to the kids, and I have no other information) from outside the fence asked them… A couple weeks ago, my kid (6.5yo) was playing in the school's courtyard with a few friends.
Three teenagers (according to the kids, and I have no other information) from outside the fence asked them if they wanted candy, and suggesting that they could walk home together.
The kids reacted correctly - refused and went straight to the teacher - so no harm done.
Still, I and the other parents are kinda surprised by the relative lack of response from the teacher's side, and kinda worried because of course the Kopfkino runs full-time in these cases.
So, I was wondering if it's a common occurrence, if there were other cases, if the Polizei recommends anything, if there are stupid TikTok "challenges" going on that an old and out-of-touch parent should know about and, basically, anything that could help avoid being worried sick for the next thirty years.
honestly, this isn't super common but it's not unheard of either. in my neighborhood in friedrichshain, a parent group set up a quick whatsapp chain after someone spotted teens hanging by the schulhof fence after school, just to share if anything weird happened. maybe worth asking your kitas or schule if there's already one, or starting it yourself.
the polizei berlin website has a "verhaltenstipps für eltern" section under prävention that's pretty clear about how to talk to kids without scaring them. they recommend role-playing "what if" scenarios at home, which sounds dorky but actually works. the teacher's low response might just be because they see dumb stuff all the time, but you can also call the schulaufsicht for your bezirk and ask if there's a safety protocol for after-hours incidents.
That sounds scary, and I don't think you're overreacting. The teacher's non-response is frustrating, but in Berlin schools they often see a lot of gate-climbers and weird offers during off-hours and don't always escalate unless it becomes a pattern. You could try asking the school's Schulsozialarbeiter directly, they're usually more on top of this stuff than the classroom teachers.
There's no specific TikTok challenge I've heard of that matches this, but there have been a few cases in Neukölln and Wedding where teens test boundaries near playgrounds, mostly just being idiots rather than an organized threat. The Polizei Berlin has a Präventionsstelle that does free workshops for Grundschulen, you can email them and they'll send someone to talk to the whole year group about exactly this kind of situation.
fwiw, I've seen something similar near our school in Pankow last month, turned out to be a dumb group of 16-year-olds filming reactions for a private snapchat group, not even a challenge just bored kids being idiots. still worth reporting to the Polizei's online portal (the "Internetwache" thing) just to have it on record, even if nothing comes of it, because if it happens again in your area they'll actually send a Streifenwagen for a bit.
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What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.