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A PRIMARY SCHOOL in southern France is in shock today after a teacher was stabbed to death in front of her pupils by a student’s mother.
The attack on the 34-year-old took place around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) as morning classes began at Albi’s Edouard Herriot primary school.
Albi prosecutor, Claude Derens, told AFP:
This morning, a mother showed up with a knife and stabbed a 34-year-old teacher in front of her students, for reasons that will be determined by the investigation.
“When I arrived at the scene they were trying to revive her. She was in cardiac arrest in her classroom.”
The victim, a mother of two small children, taught in the school’s kindergarten, the school has 284 students aged from three to 11.
Students and teachers were evacuated from the school immediately after the attack.
It is not yet known if the mother’s child was in the class at the time of the stabbing.
President Francois Hollande sent Education Minister Benoit Hamon to the school to take charge of the government response.
In a statement Hollande said:
All state services will be mobilised to take care of these children and the staff who witnessed this awful tragedy.
A spokesman for Hamon said he was on his way to the school to show his support, saying the education minister “is deeply shocked by this crime, which plunges the end of the school year into mourning.”
“This tragedy confirms there is a need to fight against violence in and around schools, to protect schools, teachers and students.”
Prime Minister Manuel Valls also expressed his “dismay” at the incident.
The entire education community is in mourning today. The investigation that has started should shed light on the circumstances of this tragedy.
The incident comes amid concerns in France over assaults by parents on teachers, with a study released on Thursday saying that education workers in France were twice as likely to be threatened and insulted than people in other professions.
The study by the INSEE state statistics agency found that 12 percent of education workers suffered threats and verbal abuse.
Only 0.6% of education workers reported suffering physical attacks however.
Teachers under the age of 30 were more likely to be threatened or insulted, it said.
Another study released in April said nearly half of primary school principals reported being verbally or physically attacked.
Of 4,000 principals questioned in the study, 49 percent said they had suffered from harassment, threats or insults in the 2012-13 school year.
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Still use my nano for runs and the gym , it’s great.
We had the classic iPod, then our daughter got the nano5 and our son the nano7. His has broken since, but hers still works.
Would be nice to have an mp3 player not reliant on the internet to give kids to let them have music in their bedroom….tjat did not have a camera, text messaging, etc. In other words, can we have separate devices for each activity? Oh wait….we used to have it that way…..
@Seeking Truth: I bought my daughter a low tech stereo system and CDs! She loves that the radio never buffers!!!
@Deborah Behan: she has a CD player and can listen to the radio on her iPod nano. But Spotify makes things tricky!! Looking at a Sonos wireless speaker that runs from an app anywhere in the house so the device can stay downstairs but they are fairly spendy!!!
Still have me 2gb nano and 80gb iPod 2nd edition and they are still going strong!
I still use my 120gb iPod. Long may it last !
I wish I had any iPod
I won an iPod nano 4th gen in college in 2004. I wasn’t into music really turn so I gave it to my sister who was. A few years later she gave it back when she got a phone that could store music. I used it for podcasts and music then. In 2010 I got an iPod touch 4th gen and used that instead. A couple years ago I gave the iPod nano back to my sister and she uses it for music in her car. It’s a great little device.
What’s a Walkman ??? :) I’m still hauling a record player around with a long extension lead :)
I have the first Generation IPod, took great care of it and think I even have the original box for it.I’m hoping it will be worth something in the future
@Melina Roberts: It probably will be. Apple recalled them a few years back due to battery issues and replaced them with a newer version (the small square thing whose button always breaks). If the screen wasn’t broken we wouldn’t of sent ours away. It was the original classic design.
Pity…
very tough to get a device these days that children want and can satisfy parents at the same time.
Over rated over priced just like VW Audi cars.
@Alan Scott: I got a nano 9 years ago and still works fine. Worth every cent!
I had a 5th gen Nano about 10 years ago. It was a perfect piece of kit and had I not lost it it would probably still be my preferred way to listen to music.
I had a 160gb iPod classic and have an iPod touch but never use it now. I use Spotify on my phone as my main source of music these days.
I waited for the first generation iPod touch. I still have it (though for a time I thought I lost it and got a 4th or 5th generation iPod touch and found the 1st generation one a few days later.)
never liked apple devices
Classic
I have a one of those iPod classics U2 edition jobbys somewhere in the house, never even been used as I can’t find it. I’m sure that it is a great little device when it turns up! : O
Never owned an Apple product and never will.
My neck’s killing me carting this boombox about.
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