The fourteen-year-old student who fatally stabbed an education assistant in Nogent on Tuesday aimed to kill a random staff member of the school. Last week, the student was reprimanded in the schoolyard for kissing his girlfriend there.
According to the public prosecutor, the boy wanted to kill “anyone” because he was “dissatisfied with the behavior” of the education assistants at the school.
An incident from Friday may have played a role, reports news agency AFP. The student kissed his girlfriend in the schoolyard. A staff member then gave him a reprimand. The staff member is not the person the boy subsequently killed.
The prosecutor describes the boy as “a teenager who has lost his way”. During his detention, he showed no signs of a mental disorder. However, he expressed a fascination with violence and death. He also showed no sympathy for the victim.
The student carried out the attack on Tuesday with a large kitchen knife. He was quickly overpowered by a police officer who was present at the school for a bag check. The officer was injured on his hand and will be unable to work for at least ten days.
The French Minister of Education, Élisabeth Borne, has announced a minute of silence for Thursday in all schools to commemorate the 31-year-old victim. The education assistant was a former hairdresser who had retrained. She had been working at the secondary school in Nogent, in northeastern France, since September.