4 days ago
French school stabbing: Teen arrested for stabbing employee; Macron condemns violence
Representative image (AI)
A French teaching assistant was stabbed to death on Tuesday by a 15-year-old student at Françoise Dolto Schoolin eastern France.
The 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.
The teaching assistant was "simply doing her job by welcoming students at the entrance to the school", Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, secretary general of the SE-UNSA teachers' union, was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP.
A police officer assisting with bag inspections sustained minor injuries during the arrest, according to the gendarmes (security forces) . Authorities are currently investigating the incident at Françoise Dolto School in Nogent.
French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the incident. "While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence," Macron wrote on X, commenting on the latest in a spate of such incidents at French schools.
"The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime," he added.
Fatal attacks like these have been uncommon in France, but there has been an increasing concern about violence in schools. To address this, the French education ministry implemented bag checks at certain schools this year. Over a two-month span this spring, 186 knives were confiscated during the checks, and 32 individuals were arrested, according to the interior minister's office on Tuesday.
