Nice: the director and a teacher of a nursery school attacked with a handgun

A 36-year-old woman was arrested and placed in police custody on Monday after attacking the director and a teacher of a nursery school in Nice, the Clément Roissal establishment, announced the public prosecutor of Nice, Damien Martinelli, and the mayor Éric Ciotti.

The prosecutor did not immediately give details but is expected to communicate later today. Éric Ciotti, who went to the targeted school near the center of Nice, denounced an attack of “unbelievable violence and particularly serious”.

According to the regional daily Nice Matin, the director was threatened with a handgun - which we do not know if it was real or fake - and was subjected to a game of Russian roulette, the woman pressing the trigger twice without causing percussion. No student witnessed the scene, said Eric Ciotti.

Emmanuel Roux, the rector of the Nice academy, expressed his emotion after visiting the educational staff this Monday. He described these facts as “deeply shocking” before adding that “no National Education staff should have to suffer threats or violence in the exercise of their missions”. Concerning the director and the teacher, he praised in a press release “the coolness they showed in the face of this situation”.

Later in the day, Éric Ciotti returned to the context surrounding this attack in a school environment: “At this stage, what seems proven is that a parent of students requested an appointment while she was quite agitated from the director of the Clément Roissal school who received it around 9 a.m. She then stole the teacher’s cell phone, closed the office door,” he described before adding that the person “would have used a weapon.”

“I don’t know if this gun was loaded, or if it was fake. “I was told about a simulation of Russian roulette and also about physical violence against the director,” said the mayor of the fifth largest city in France. In addition to the director, the other teacher would also have been “physically attacked” with “blows”, added Éric Ciotti, evoking “a lot of emotions” this Monday among the educational staff of the Clément Roissal nursery school.