A 16-year-old student attacked two schoolmates with a cutting tool similar to a ‘Stanley knife’ – an incident which the school principal alleged was caused by “girlfriends and Facebook issues” – in yet another case of violence among pupils in Portugal.
The attack took place at the Oliveira Júnior primary and secondary school in S. João da Madeira, near Porto, on December 5 during a multimedia class.
The two victims, aged 16 and 17, suffered injuries to their legs and were taken to the hospital but released a couple of hours later. They have since given their statements to local PSP police.
Mário Coelho, the school principal, explained that the attacker “is a calm boy, who was mostly defending himself”.
“He never had any cases of irreverence in the past,” he said, adding that the youth was generally considered “a peaceful young man”.
The headteacher believes the situation escalated after the student began being insulted and bullied on Facebook.
“He took it all in, until they started fighting at school,” Coelho told Lusa news agency.
The attacker now faces a court hearing to decide his punishment. This is another case in an increasing number of outbreaks of violence among students in Portugal.
Violence at Portugal’s schools hit the headlines last month in Torres Vedras, when a pupil was rushed to hospital after being stabbed by a classmate. Shortly before, a student in Massamá stabbed three of his classmates as well as a school worker, and around the same time a 17 year-old was badly slashed about the face at the entrance of his school in Portela de Sintra for refusing to give a cigarette to two local youths.
