A 14-year-old student who stabbed and gravely wounded an art teacher in France acted with premeditation, a prosecutor said on Wednesday, February 4th, telling investigators he was driven by “hatred.”
The 60-year-old victim remains in a serious condition after the attack on Tuesday, February 3rd, in the southeastern town of Sanary-sur-Mer, said Raphaël Balland, the public prosecutor in the nearby city of Toulon.
The student, now held on suspicion of attempted murder, admitted taking a knife from his family kitchen specifically to carry out the attack, he said.
The teenager told police he stabbed the teacher four times in front of a class of 22 students because he had “too much hatred,” added Balland. The prosecutor said on Tuesday there was no known religious or political motivation behind the stabbing.
The student was allegedly upset that the teacher—a 28-year veteran of the school—had reported several disciplinary incidents involving him, which he described as “unfair.” He told authorities he now “deeply regretted” his actions, claiming he felt more hatred towards himself than his victim after the attack.
He is due to appear before a court, which will decide whether to place him in pre-trial detention as requested by the prosecution.
The attack is the latest in a series of incidents in France involving violence by pupils against teachers or fellow students. A 14-year-old schoolboy was last year charged with the murder of a teaching assistant after allegedly stabbing her to death in June. He attacked the 31-year-old, a mother of a young boy, during a bag search in the eastern town of Nogent. In a separate case, a student in April killed a girl and wounded several other pupils in a stabbing spree in the western city of Nantes.
