A teacher in Aubervilliers, France remains in custody on December 14, 2015, facing six months in prison because he lied about being stabbed by an ISIS fanatic in his school.
The 45-year-old unnamed preschool teacher claimed he was preparing for the day’s work in his classroom when he was approached by a man wearing a full-face covering and gloves. He said that the attacker cut him and tried to slit his throat with a box cutter or a pair of scissors while shouting, “This is for Daesh,” another name for ISIS.
He told reporters that the assailant entered the preschool around 7:10 in the morning and attacked him in his classroom with the box cutter and a pair of scissors that he had found on the school premises. The teacher said that no children or other members of staff had been present at the time.
The authorities believed the teacher’s claim and began to hunt for the assailant as the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation for attempted murder.
However, while the teacher was being interviewed at the hospital, he confessed that it was all a hoax. He later admitted under questioning from prosecutors that the story had been a lie and said that he was trying to spread hatred against Muslims by fabricating the stabbing.
A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, said, “He wounded himself alone in his classroom, before the children arrived.”
She said the preschool teacher was in the hospital for his wounds, which were not life-threatening, and was being questioned further.
“I think this event was completely inappropriate because France is still not stable after the shootings that happened. This teacher should have taken other people’s feelings into consideration, and not think about only himself,” said an anonymous sophomore.
The false attack brought the entire country on edge because they were still on high alert from the deadly terror attacks in Paris on November 13 that left 130 dead.
“How could spreading hatred ever be a good thing? Even though ISIS has done many horrible things, it does not give anyone the right to lie or give false evidence to justify why people should hate Muslims. I think the government needs to step in to solve this issue because doing more acts like this will lead to more terroristic attacks. People should not take their actions to extreme extents like this teacher no matter the situation,” says sophomore Eve Ayar.
Police have still not fully determined why he made up this whole fiasco. Parents said that he worked in the school for 20 years and was “very involved” in the community.
France’s Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem has confirmed that additional security will be offered at schools. She described the terrorist threat as being “real and permanent” and that “all public places deserve protection, particularly schools.”
“We will continue to reinforce security measures at schools in a context where schools feel threatened,” she said.
What is your opinion on this event? Was the teacher’s reasoning justified or not?
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