This drama shook the French educational community, a little over two years after the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher beheaded on October 16, 2020 by a young radicalized Islamist man. A minute of silence will be observed this Thursday, February 23, at 3 p.m. in colleges and high schools in France in tribute to Agnès Lassalle, the Spanish teacher stabbed by a student on Wednesday February 22 in her class in Saint-Jean-de- Luz, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Bayonne prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier, who has opened an investigation for “assassination”, will hold a press conference this Thursday at the same time.
“The Nation is by your side,” President Emmanuel Macron told teachers on Twitter on Wednesday, while the head of government Élisabeth Borne shared “the shock and pain of the educational community” at Saint-Thomas college-high school. Aquinas.
A teacher is stabbed to death in Saint-Jean-de-Luz
© / afp.com/Ayoub SIMOUR
Who is the alleged perpetrator of the attack?
The alleged perpetrator of the assault, aged 16 and “placed in police custody”, “was not known to the police or the justice services”, has already affirmed the prosecutor. “His condition allows police custody”, he added, while two sources familiar with the matter told Agence France Presse that the young man made “incoherent remarks” and suffered from “proven psychiatric disorders”. . “To my knowledge, there were no particular circumstances or reports,” said Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, who visited the scene on Wednesday.
Who is the victim ?
She is a 52-year-old teacher from the private Catholic high school Saint-Thomas d’Aquin. The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, praised the “exceptional dedication” of the victim who “spent at least 80-90% of his time doing his work for his school, even during the holidays”, according to his companion interviewed by BFMTV.
What happened ?
The public prosecutor should give details on Thursday of the circumstances of the tragedy. According to a high school student present in the class on Wednesday, the alleged perpetrator “approached” the teacher “and stuck a large knife in her chest, without saying anything”. “We didn’t know how to react, there was a student who opened the door and we all left. I ran away, I left the establishment and the father of a friend came to pick me up, I I didn’t feel safe in high school,” she added, assuring that “there had never been a problem between” the author of the aggression “and the teacher in class”.
What consequences in the establishment?
The pupils of the class concerned were taken care of by a psychological cell, as were the pupils of the two other second classes of the establishment. Thursday morning must also be “trivialized” in the establishment, indicated Pap Ndiaye, who stressed that this private Catholic establishment of just over 1,100 students had so far been “calm” and “renowned for its seriousness and for the serenity of its school climate”. The Minister of Education will observe a minute of silence at 3 p.m. at the Combe de Savoie college in Albertville in Savoie.
Political reactions
In the political class, support for teachers was accompanied by a few nuances: the socialist Olivier Faure believes that “we ask everything of our teachers who have to face all the violence in society”, while the president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti called for “reviewing the graduation of minors’ sentences” and that the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen deemed “urgent to act for the safety of the French”.
Attacks on teachers are frequent, but AFP has recorded less than a dozen murders over the past four decades.