The girl was “a danger to herself,” the public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday night. There is no evidence of radicalization. According to the investigators’ initial findings, the twelve-year-old had previously behaved abnormally in class.
The English teacher sat down next to her and heard the student say: “Today I’m going crazy. I feel like killing someone, the students who don’t like me.” She also alluded to the murder of teacher Dominique Bernard by a jihadist-motivated former student two months ago.
The girl then pulled a knife with a 17 centimeter long blade out of her school bag. The teacher sent her class outside and then left the classroom with the child behind her. A colleague pulled her into her class and locked the room, and two men then overpowered the student.
Trouble because the teacher banned cell phones
The twelve-year-old was born in Marseille, her parents come from Mongolia and have the right to remain in France. She was expelled from another school in June because she insulted a teacher and brought a knife to school, but without using it.
According to a witness statement, the student was upset because the teacher had taken away her cell phone the previous week. However, it is unclear whether this was the trigger for the crime, the public prosecutor emphasized. She began a preliminary investigation into the attempted murder of a public servant.
“It is an isolated case, but it occurs in a tense context, as the situation is still very tense since the murder of Dominique Bernard,” said Matthieu Mahéo from a teachers’ union. A good three years ago, the murder of the teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old with jihadist motivation shocked the country.
