A teacher is dead, announced the Bayonne prosecutor’s office, after being stabbed on Wednesday February 22 in the middle of the morning by a student in the private establishment Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), which brings together a middle school and a high school. According to information from Le Monde, the terrorist motive is not retained at this stage of the investigation, which is moving towards taking into account the student’s possible psychiatric disorders.
The 16-year-old perpetrator was arrested and taken into police custody, said Bayonne public prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier, who went there with other officials. The teenager used a knife to assault the victim, a 52-year-old Spanish teacher, he said.
He was “not known to the police or the justice services”, he added during the press conference held with the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, at 3:45 p.m. was “entrusted to the judicial police service of Bayonne. This investigation qualifies as assassination, i.e. premeditated murder,” he said. “His condition allows police custody”, further assured Mr. Bourrier while two sources familiar with the matter spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP) of a young man making “incoherent remarks” and with “proven psychiatric disorders “. The magistrate also announced that he would hold another press conference on Thursday afternoon.
psychological cell
“It’s a sad day for national education,” the minister said. “We were struck by the solidarity, by the dignity. The teachers first asked about their students. It speaks to the strength, the solidity of the educational community of this establishment,” he said. Mr. Ndiaye announced that a minute of silence would be held Thursday at 3 p.m. in “all schools” in the country. He also pointed out that “the students of the second class who witnessed the attack, as well as the students of the other two second classes, a total of approximately ninety students, have been taken care of since this morning by a psychological cell”.
On Twitter, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said she shared “the shock and pain of the educational community” at Saint-Jean-de-Luz high school. “All my thoughts are with the victim, his family and loved ones, his colleagues, the students,” she said.
In the afternoon, a student had testified in front of the press. “I didn’t see him get up, but I saw him facing the teacher, very calm, and he approached her and stuck a big knife in her chest, without saying anything”, said the teenager at the exit of the establishment. “I don’t really know this boy, we’re just in Spanish class together, but there was never a problem between him and the teacher in class,” she said.
After being confined for about two hours in their classrooms, the students left the establishment at midday, with the exception of those who were in class with the murdered teacher, noted a correspondent of the AFP.
A “valued” teacher
This is the first time that a teacher has been killed in the course of his duties in France since the assassination of Samuel Paty, in the fall of 2020 in Val-d’Oise.
The professor murdered on Wednesday was a member of one of the majority unions in Catholic education, the National Union of Christian Education of the French Confederation of Christian Workers (SNEC-CFTC), the academic secretary of this union told Le Monde. Rudolf Cassaro.
He describes a “very experienced teacher, appreciated by her colleagues and her students, in a school where there was no problem with the school climate”. The SNEC-CFTC sends its “thoughts to the family and the school community of Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin”, adds the trade unionist. The National Union of Secondary Education of the Unitary Trade Union Federation (SNES-FSU) expressed its “shock and immense pain” on Twitter.
The private establishment under contract Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin de Saint-Jean-de-Luz, which is under the supervision of the diocese, is a “city center establishment, rather opulent”, says the press service of the General Secretariat for Catholic Education, joined by Le Monde. The school welcomes “600 or 700 students”, adds Philippe Delorme, the general secretary of Catholic education. The Union of Staff of Private Education Establishments under Contract of the National Union of Autonomous Unions (SNEP-UNSA) describes an establishment “in the norm”, without “strong pressure” on the students.
Like Mr. Delorme, the Conference of Bishops of France addressed “thoughts” and “prayers” to the educational community of the establishment, in a press release.
