Brazil: a high school girl killed in her school by a former student

June 20, 2023

A 16-year-old high school student was killed and another student was injured Monday in a shooting attack by a former student at a school in southern Brazil, authorities said.

The intervention of a teacher, who immobilized the shooter, “made it possible to avoid an even more serious tragedy”, declared the governor of the state of Parana, Carlos Ratinho Junior, who decreed three days of mourning.

A statement from the regional government said that “a former student entered armed” at a high school in the town of Londrina, where he had gone to “ask for his school record”.

Once inside, “he shot two people. A 16-year-old student died at the scene and another student was hospitalized with gunshot wounds.” Neither the age nor the state of health of the injured student was specified.

According to local press, the assailant is 21 years old.

“The teacher who tackled the former student had recently undergone training and the police arrived at the school in just three minutes,” said the governor of Parana.

A second individual, aged 21 and suspected of having collaborated in the organization of the attack, was later arrested, the Parana government said in a statement.

“Another young life stolen by hatred and violence that we can no longer tolerate in our schools and in our society”, tweeted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who expressed “sadness and indignation”.

Several attacks have recently bereaved schools in Brazil.

In April, four children aged four to seven were murdered with axes in a school in Blumenau (south).

In 2019, eight people were killed by two former students of a high school in the suburbs of Sao Paulo who then committed suicide.

“The apology for violence is today in the palms of our young people’s hands, on smartphones, on tablets, in the irresponsible proliferation of messages of violence and hatred on the internet”, judged Monday in Rio de Janeiro Justice Minister Flavio Dino.

The most dramatic attack ever recorded in Brazil was the death of 12 children in 2011 in a kindergarten in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, murdered by a man who opened fire before committing suicide.