PARIS (AP) – The mother of a pupil at a French pre-school stabbed a teacher to death in front of her class Friday, the last day of the school year, authorities said.
The education minister said the mother apparently had “serious psychiatric problems,” and pledged support for teachers in the face of angry or violent parents. Police said the mother was taken into custody.
Deadly attacks in a school are extremely rare in France, and the stabbing in front of a class of 5- and 6-year-olds raised concern at the highest levels. French President Francois Hollande expressed outrage at the attack at the Edouard Herriot school in Albi in southern France.
Education Minister Benoit Hamon traveled immediately to the school, and told reporters that the mother of a pupil “committed this abominable act in a class against a remarkable teacher.” A police official said the mother stabbed the teacher with a knife soon after school started Friday morning.
Hamon said the attacker’s child had been in the school only for a month and a half, and the mother had had very little contact with the school staff until Friday. It was unclear whether her 5-year-old daughter was in class at the time of the attack.