NOGENT: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday condemned a “senseless wave of violence” after a 14-year-old fatally stabbed a teaching assistant in the country’s latest deadly school attack.
The secondary school student was arrested after attacking the 31-year-old assistant with a knife during a bag search in Nogent in eastern France, officials said.
France has been shocked by attacks on teachers and pupils by other schoolchildren amidst a general rise in youth crime. In April, a student killed a girl and wounded several other pupils in a stabbing spree in the western city of Nantes.
Reports of bladed weapons in schools have jumped by 15 percent in the last year, according to government figures released in February. The education ministry said 6,000 checks in schools resulted in the seizure of 186 knives between March 26 and May 23.
‘Horrific act’
The assistant at the Francoise Dolto school was stabbed several times as pupils arrived to have their bags inspected in the presence of police, education officials said.
“He is a young man from a family where both parents work, who does not present any particular difficulties,“ Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said at the scene, referring to the suspect.
“Young people are shocked,“ Borne said. “They are also very shocked to see that one of their classmates could commit such a horrific act. And this classmate was very well integrated in the middle school.”
The victim, a former hairdresser who had been working at the school since September, was the mother of a young boy, said one of her cousins, Aurore.
“She was a very cheerful, very kind person.”
The alleged attacker, who has no criminal record, was restrained by police monitoring the inspections, said prosecutor Denis Devallois. One officer was slightly injured, he added.
“While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence,“ Macron wrote on X.
“The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime,“ he added.
French lawmakers observed a minute’s silence in parliament.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said the tragedy showed “a breakdown of the society in which we live”.
“This is not just an isolated incident,“ he said.
France’s education ministry reported in April a 60 percent rise in violent incidents in 2023, with nearly 5,000 requests for protection filed on behalf of national education staff during the course of their duties.”
Bayrou called for a trial of metal detectors in schools and for authorities to “tighten regulations” on knives by adding some that are not currently banned as weapons.
‘Apathy of authorities’
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen used the stabbing attack to denounce “the apathy of the authorities”.
“The French people have had enough and are waiting for a firm, uncompromising and determined political response to the scourge of youth violence,“ she said on X.
Hardleft firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said authorities must better look after “the mental health” of young people, especially boys.
In May, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Naima Moutchou, said the carrying of knives had become “a phenomenon” affecting the whole country.
“That’s 3,000 young people a year who are arrested with a bladed weapon,“ Moutchou said.
Sophie Venetitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU teachers’ union, said the teaching assistant had been left “exposed.”
“Teaching assistants have an educational role and are not security guards outside schools.”
She was “simply doing her job by welcoming students at the entrance to the school”, added Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, secretary general of the SE-UNSA teachers’ union.
The attack “shows that nothing can ever be completely secure and that it is prevention that needs to be focused on,“ she said.
Laurent Zameczkowski, spokesperson for the PEEP parents’ association, said “the real problem is the mental health of our young people, which has deteriorated since Covid.”
