Unlike the US, most countries, including France, are still highly sensitized to violence in their schools. Several weeks ago, an 18 year old student was stabbed at his high school outside of Paris. Hospitalized for several days, he eventually succumbed to his wounds. The national ministers of education and the interior were immediately dispatched to the school to meet with school officials. The education minister, Luc Chattel, also called (FR) for a nationwide moment of silence to be observed the following week. Then, yesterday, 4,000 persons, including the President of the Ile-de-France region, took part in a march (FR) in remembrance of the victim, the son of Tunisian immigrants. In an interview, Chattel, said what he feared most was not that violence was on the rise, but that such incidents are at risk of becoming banalisé (FR). Hard to know when the US passed that point, but we are certainly well beyond it now.
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