A policeman in front of the Tomás de Aquino Institute in San Juan de Luz. VINCENT WEST | Reuters
The prosecutor from Bayonne assures that the attacker “suffers from mental disorders”
The 16-year-old high school student who killed Agnès Lassalle, his Spanish teacher at the private Santo Tomás de Aquino Institute in San Juan de Luz, France, claimed he “heard voices” that prompted him to stab the victim, 53. because she “incarnated evil”, according to police sources cited by French channel BFMTV. In addition, the public prosecutor of Bayonne, Jerôme Bourrier, confirmed yesterday that the young man wanted to commit the crime in revenge for an argument he had with a student and for the enmity the professor aroused in him by giving him bad grades. Bourrier confirmed that the perpetrator of the stabbing suffers from mental disorders, although “there is no indication that they encouraged the perpetrator of the crime to commit it.”
The same prosecutor assured that the material author of the event was under psychiatric monitoring after he attempted suicide in 2022 with antidepressants that he had been taking for some time due to bullying at another educational center. Several witnesses to the event, including classmates, claim that the young man was a “calm, hardworking and lonely” man. and that “she had no problems with her teacher,” according to the digital publication La Depêche. “I really don’t know that boy, we’re just in Spanish class together, but there was never a problem between him and the teacher in class,” says another witness.
The incident happened at around 10 o’clock last Wednesday, when a student got up from his chair, blocked the classroom door and stabbed Agnès Lassalle, causing one large wound that would end her life. The students managed to unlock the door and escape, although others did so through the window.
The attacker moved to one of the neighboring classes, where he told the teacher: “I ruined my life, it’s over”. The teacher managed to get him to give him the kitchen knife that the student had stolen from his father’s house and stayed behind until the police arrived and began to arrest him. Several witnesses were notified Le Parisien that thanks to the fact that they had mobile phones, they were able to inform their classmates from other classrooms so that they could escape from the center in view of the events
Violence in French classrooms
The prosecution requested the detention of the arrested defendant under the charge of “premeditated murder” in the context of special violence in French schools, where a dozen complaints were recorded last semester due to violent attacks on various teachers.
“A tragedy that echoes the murder of Samuel Paty and other acts of violence against teachers that ended in a less tragic way. We need to have more information,” complained Stéphane Crochet, general secretary of the UNSA teachers’ union.
Source: La Vozde Galicia
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
