A 71-year-old Brazilian teacher was stabbed to death by a student, and 5 others were injured

News

By Associated Press

March 28, 2023 | 2:38 p.m

A 13-year-old student in Brazil’s largest city stabbed a 71-year-old teacher and wounded three teachers and two fellow students Monday in a knife attack at a public school, state officials said.

The five injured victims from Tomasia Montoro School in São Paulo were in stable condition. The suspected attacker has been arrested and the state military police are investigating.

“Our efforts are focused on helping the injured and comforting family members,” Governor Tarcisio de Freitas wrote on social media.

A student who spoke to reporters alongside his mother outside the school said the attacker had insulted another student last week, and that the female teacher he fatally stabbed had tried to settle the dispute.

Gabriel Livramento, 13, who is in the same class as the suspect, said the attacker called the other student a “rat,” and “the other one didn’t like it, and they started fighting.” He added that the attacker did not like the way the teacher intervened and said he would do something about it.

Livramento said the attacker entered the classroom on Monday wearing a skull mask and stabbed the teacher from behind, hitting her head and back. He said the whole class then started running.

Authorities said at an afternoon news conference that the boy searched for ways to obtain a firearm on the Internet. He had recently been transferred from another school.