Armed mother attacks headteacher and teacher at nursery school in Nice
A 36-year-old woman assaulted two members of staff at a nursery school in Nice with a firearm and a knife. An investigation for attempted murder has been opened.
Investigation for attempted murder following assault at Nice nursery school
A 36-year-old woman, mother of two children enrolled at a nursery school near Nice city centre, assaulted the headteacher and a teacher at the establishment on Monday morning, threatening them with a firearm and a knife, before being taken into custody at her home. According to france24.com, an investigation for "attempted murder" has been opened and entrusted to Nice's judicial police.
According to prosecutor Damien Martinelli, the woman presented herself at around 09:00 at the reception of the establishment, demanding an urgent meeting with the headteacher. Received in the latter's office, she pointed a firearm in her direction while making accusations of sexual assault of which one of her children was allegedly a victim.
An hour of violence in the headteacher's office
The magistrate detailed the sequence of acts: the mother struck the headteacher, pulled her hair, secured the weapon at her belt before striking her again. She then re-armed her pistol and pulled the trigger whilst pointing it at the headteacher, "without a shot being fired", specifying that she had "only two bullets". She also struck the headteacher's face with the weapon, then drew a knife which she placed against her cheek, before leaving the office "approximately an hour after entering it".
Upon leaving the establishment, the woman encountered a teacher to whom she addressed the same accusations, struck her and pointed the weapon in her direction. She then left the premises. No pupils witnessed the incident, confirmed Nice's mayor Éric Ciotti, who visited the school that morning.
Arrested, with an already lengthy criminal record
Taken into custody shortly afterwards at her home and placed under guard, the suspect stated that she had "dual Tunisian and Italian nationality" and worked as a healthcare worker. The prosecutor's office specifies that she contests all acts of violence and that she has "already been convicted twice, including for assault with a weapon in 2019". The search of her home did not recover the firearm used.
Reactions from authorities
Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray condemned on X an assault that was "intolerable", adding: "To attack these two women in the exercise of their duties is to attack the School itself in its entirety." Éric Ciotti for his part described the assault as "unprecedented and particularly serious violence", causing "a major shock throughout the entire Nice educational community".
The rector of Nice's academy, Emmanuel Roux, visited the establishment to express his support for the staff and announced the mobilisation of an academic security team as well as the implementation of psychological support.
Parents of pupils encountered outside the school expressed their support for the victims. Vanessa, mother of a child in the pre-school section, told Agence France-Presse that the assaulted teacher was "a very kind person".
Context of repeated violence against school staff
This incident comes as two parents have been sentenced in recent weeks to custodial sentences for threatening to kill teachers in the Toulouse and Bordeaux regions. On 10 September, a father who threatened to "cut the head off" a teacher in Fauga, near Toulouse, received a six-month custodial sentence. A week later, the Bordeaux court sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, of which six suspended, a parent who had threatened to kill and assaulted a supervisor and the principal of a secondary school in Eysines.
In Gironde, another parent is to be tried in March for threatening to kill a teacher at an primary school in Talence, near Bordeaux.
Source: Google News MA — Crime (fr)