Mother stabs French teacher to death in front of students
Print Edition
A PRIMARY school in southern France was in shock yesterday after a female teacher was stabbed to death in front of her pupils by a student’s mother, who was quickly detained.
Education Minister Benoit Hamon rushed to the school to coordinate the government response and later told journalists that the assailant appeared to have “psychiatric problems.”
The attack on the 34-year-old teacher took place at about 9am as morning classes began at Albi’s Edouard Herriot primary school, which is attended by 284 students aged 3 to 11.
“This morning, a mother showed up with a knife and stabbed a 34-year-old teacher in front of her students, for reasons that will be determined by the investigation,” said Albi prosecutor Claude Derens.
“When I arrived at the scene they were trying to revive her. She was in cardiac arrest in her classroom,” he said.
The victim, a mother of two small children, taught in the school’s kindergarten.
Students and teachers were evacuated from the school immediately after the attack.
The assailant was described as a 47-year-old woman and it was not known if her child was in the classroom at the time of the stabbing.
“This is an appalling act, a murder, a murder of a teacher in her classroom, in front of her students, by a woman who ... seems to suffer from significant psychiatric problems,” Hamon said after arriving in Albi.
President Francois Hollande offered the government’s full support to those involved.
“All state services will be mobilized to take care of these children and the staff who witnessed this awful tragedy,” Hollande said in a statement.
In an earlier statement Hamon said he was “deeply shocked by this crime, which plunges the end of the school year into mourning.”
“This tragedy confirms there is a need to fight against violence in and around schools, to protect schools, teachers and students.”
Prime Minister Manuel Valls also expressed his “dismay” at the incident.
“The entire education community is in mourning today,” he said in a statement.
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