School “in shock”; “nothing like this has ever happened before”
A school in Felgueiras is in shock today after a 16-year-old pupil attacked a teacher with an iron bar, leaving him with serious injuries and prostrate on the classroom floor.
“I have just killed the teacher”, the boy is understood to have said, before fleeing the scene to take refuge in the home of a family member.
The 46-year-old teacher was stabilised by emergency teams and transported to nearby Hospital Padre Américo in Penafiel. He is understood to have suffered “serious injuries in various parts of his body”, including his head.
“Even with the teacher on the ground, (the boy) continued to attack him”, writes Correio da Mana tabloid today, which refers to 1,860 aggressions registered by the GNR police ‘Escola Segura’ (Safe School) programme in the last academic year (2021/ 2022)..
A fellow teacher “visibly shaken” told the paper: “We are all in shock and trying to deal with this situation. Nothing has ever happened as serious as this. Measures will have to be taken, and I hope that our pupils are not affected by this isolated act…”
The horror played out in a class for special needs pupils at the Escola Básica 2/3 de Lagares yesterday morning. The 16-year-old was in the class, according to CM, because of “elevated disinterest for his studies”.
It appears that he pulled down the trousers of an autistic pupil, for which the teacher told him he would be reported, and face ‘a disciplinary process’.
“The teen left the classroom, going to fetch an iron bar of considerable dimension, and after the bell went for break, he returned to the classroom, attacking the teacher on the legs and head.”
Attempts to get a statement from the school’s board of directors were referred to the school group of Dr Machado de Matos, which had not responded in time for CM’s publication date.
