3 days ago
Teaching assistant and single mum 'stabbed to death' by pupil, 14, is pictured
A French teaching assistant who was allegedly stabbed to death by a pupil has been pictured for the first time.
Named only as Melanie G, the single mum died on Tuesday and had only started work as a teacher at the Françoise Dolto secondary school, in Nogent-sur-Marne, in the eastern Paris suburbs, last year. A 14-year-old French schoolboy was tonight facing 20 years in prison after allegedly stabbing the 31-year-old teaching assistant to death after she asked to search his bag for knives. Melanie G. had given up a career as a hairdresser "because teaching would give her more time to spend with her little son," said a colleague.
Just before 8.30am on Tuesday, Melanie G. was looking for concealed weapons at the school gates, along with a police officer, in line with national education policy.
It followed a spate of school knife attacks in France, including one in April, when a teenage girl was stabbed to death, and three others wounded, at a school in Nantes, in the west of the country. A source investigating the Nogent attack said: "The boy responsible was uninjured, after stabbing his victim multiple times.
"He was soon restrained by staff, and then arrested by the police officer present at the bag check." The souce added: "One of the arresting officers suffered a slight cut to the hand." Referring to the alleged killer, the source said: "He is now in custody, and facing up to 20 years in prison if found guilty in a youth court of a deliberate killing."
Local prosecutor Denis Devallois confirmed that a criminal enquiry had been launched into the killing, and that the perpetrator faced prison The boy had been arrested twice from the school for disruptive behaviour, and was a student representative in the school's anti-bullying programme, said the source..
Following today's killing, French President Emmanuel Macron described a "senseless wave of violence" in France.
He added: "We all stand with [Melanie G.'s] family, her loved ones, her colleagues and the entire educational community. The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime."
Mélanie G. lived in Sarcey, around seven miles from Nogent, where she also worked as a municipal councillor. Paying tribute, her sister-in-law said: "She was funny, gentle, and very kind, and had one goal – to look after her child. She gave up hairdressing because she wanted more days off to be with him."
Last month, France's Education Ministry announced that 958 bag checks in schools had resulted in the seizure of 94 knives across the country.
