A 31-year-old teaching assistant was fatally stabbed by a 14-year-old student outside a middle school in Nogent, north-east France, on Tuesday morning. The incident occurred while police were conducting random bag checks outside the Françoise Dolto middle school. According to the Haute-Marne prefecture, the teaching assistant died as a result of the stabbing. A suspect, believed to be the student, has been taken into custody.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack, describing the teaching assistant as a “victim of a senseless wave of violence” and declaring that “the nation is in mourning”. Prime Minister François Bayrou also condemned the attack, stating that the threat of bladed weapons among children has become critical. Bayrou added that it is up to the authorities to make this widespread scourge a public enemy. French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said she would travel to Nogent to visit the school, commending the composure and dedication of those who acted to restrain the attacker.
The motive for the attack remains unconfirmed, and it is reported that the suspect was not formerly known to police. Bayrou wrote on social media that “our thoughts go out” to the victim’s “little boy”, family, loved ones, and the entire educational community. Opposition politicians, including Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, denounced what they called the “trivialisation of ultraviolence, encouraged by the apathy of the public authorities to put an end to it”.
This incident follows other recent knife attacks in schools. Last October, a teacher was killed during an attack at a school in the northern city of Arras. In April, Bayrou called for “an intensification of controls put in place around and within schools” after a stabbing at a high school in Nantes. According to the Ministry of National Education, 94 bladed weapons had been seized since March in 958 random bag checks at schools.
Jean-Remi Girard, president of the National Union of Secondary Schools, said: “It’s impossible to be more vigilant 24 hours a day. We can’t say that every student is a danger or a threat, otherwise we’d never get out of bed in the morning.” Politicians across parties have condemned the attack and called for more action against knife crime.