Bag checks, security cameras and gates will not solve the problem of violence at schools in France, a teachers’ union representative told Euronews after a 14-year-old student allegedly stabbed a teaching assistant to death in the northeastern town of Nogent.
The boy stabbed the 31-year-old assistant several times during a bag check at Françoise Dolto School in Nogent, near Dijon, on Tuesday, regional authorities said.
A police officer involved in the checks suffered a minor injury when the student was arrested, the authorities said. The student is now being questioned by police, according to the Haute-Marne Prefecture. No motive has yet been established.
“We are deeply saddened. A whole community is in mourning, a whole country is in mourning,” said Maxime Reppert, vice-president of the National Union of Secondary Schools and Higher Education (SNALC).
“Beyond the sadness, there is indignation and anger, because unfortunately this is not the first time that blood has been spilt in a school,” he told Euronews.
Though deadly incidents in French schools are rare, there is growing concern about violence on campuses. The government introduced bag checks and vowed “stronger deterrence and stricter penalties” after a 17-year-old was fatally stabbed outside a college during a confrontation between rival gangs in the Essonne department in March.
Between late March and late May, 6,000 checks resulted in 186 knives being seized while 32 people were arrested, according to France’s education ministry.
Yet Reppert said “we’re not tackling the problem of youth violence with random searches, cameras or gates”, calling instead for a focus on the mental health of young people, and education for the families of students.
“We are convinced that schools cannot do everything. We need to make families more responsible and help parents who need it”, he added.
Government pledges action
Reppert also said that authorities in France should not allow the age of a suspect to be used an “excuse” in cases of youth violence.
“We believe that a 15-year-old who has a weapon and commits a crime should be punished. He knows what he’s doing at that age,” he said.
“We need to make young people more responsible and we need to restore authority, the authority of adults, the authority of teachers”, the trade unionist added.
Following the fatal stabbing in Nogent, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that the teaching assistant was “the victim of a senseless wave of violence”.
“The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime,” he said.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told lawmakers on Tuesday that the government “intends to move towards experimenting with security gates at the entrance to schools”.
“We cannot remain indifferent and watch this advancing wave with our arms lowered,” he said.
Regional prosecutor Denis Devallois said the alleged suspect in the fatal stabbing on Tuesday did not have a police record. France’s Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the boy had been a student representative in the school’s anti-bullying programme, and had been briefly suspended earlier this year for disrupting class.
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