A 17-year-old high school student in Brazil is accused of stabbing her teacher because she did not like the instructor.
The incident happened on September 11 after the teen’s math exam was graded in a classroom at Dr. Gerson dos Santos State School in Cametá, the New York Post reported Saturday.
Video footage showed the teen standing at the desk where the teacher, identified as Betânia de Almeida, was sitting. Moments later, the girl appeared to take a knife out of her pocket and lunge for de Almeida.
The pair struggled and the teacher fell on the ground while trying to get the knife away from the student. The teacher eventually ran out the classroom door and the student put the knife under her shirt before exiting the room:
The teacher was reportedly stabbed once and the student was arrested at the scene, telling an officer she targeted the instructor because she did not like her.
“De Almeida was rushed to Cametá Regional Hospital, where she received stitches and was discharged Saturday, according to the school. A CT scan showed that the stab wound didn’t affect any of her organs,” the Post article continued, noting a lawyer said the teen will probably “be slapped with an infraction” similar to attempted homicide, but that because she is a minor, she cannot be considered criminally liable according to Brazilian law.
In 2023, El Pais reported that Brazil’s government leaders said the country was experiencing an “epidemic” of violent incidents at schools:
Alarm bells began ringing earlier this month after a 25-year-old man hacked to death four children between the ages of five and seven, in Blumenau, in the south of the country. A few days earlier, a 13-year-old stabbed a teacher to death and injured four other people at a school in São Paulo. The back-to-back tragedies have sparked alarm among families and authorities, who are also concerned about the spread of fake news online warning of new attacks.
In May, a 13-year-old in Brazil was arrested after a shooting on a school campus that killed two staff members, Sky News reported.
