Photo released of teacher fatally stabbed by student in French school
A French teaching assistant who was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old student during a routine school bag check has been pictured for the first time.
The victim has been named only as Melanie G., 31, a mother of a four-year-child who recently retrained as a teacher.
She suffered multiple stab wounds to her body during a ‘senseless’ attack minutes before classes began at the Francoise Dolto School in the suburb of Nogent, Paris.
The mum was later pronounced dead and the pupil was captured at the scene.
A police officer helping with the bag checks was slightly injured during the arrest, the gendarme service said.
Melanie lived in in Sarcey, a small village located only 6 miles from the school.
Residents there speaking to La Parisien paid tribute to the teaching assistant as ‘a very kind woman’ and ‘a good mother’.
One neighbour said: ‘I’m devastated. It’s horrible. We can’t believe this can happen in our region.’
France’s leading trade union for secondary education staff, the SNES‑FSU, paid tribute to the teaching assistant.
They added: ‘The entire educational community is deeply saddened by the death of our colleague.
‘The National Education system is in mourning. Once again, we have lost a colleague in the line of duty. Today is a time for emotion, reflection, and solidarity with our colleague’s family and the entire educational community’
French president Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X: ‘While she was looking after our children in Nogent, an educational assistant lost her life, a victim of senseless violence.
A student and her mother speak with reporters outside the school in Nogent (Picture: AP)
‘The nation is in mourning and the government mobilised to bring crime down.’
Such fatal attacks have been rare in France but concerns about school violence have been on the rise.
The Education Ministry introduced bag checks this year at some schools to reduce it.
Over a two-month period this spring, 186 knives were seized during school bag checks and 32 people detained, the interior minister’s office said Tuesday.
In April, a high school student stabbed four other students at his school in western France, killing one and wounding three others before being arrested, police said.
Deputy Editor
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
