Friday 18 September 2026 13:09
Rome student, 13, stabs teacher after pepper spray attack
Teacher taken to hospital but is not in a life-threatening condition.A 13-year-old student attacked his teacher with pepper spray before stabbing her at a middle school in Rome on Friday morning, in an assault that police say the boy may have attempted to film on a live video call.
The incident took place at the Giovanni Verga school, in the eastern Collatino district of the city. According to investigators, the boy sprayed an irritant into the teacher's face before wounding her with a knife. He was stopped by a fellow pupil.
Carabinieri police officers were called to the scene after an emergency call to the 112 number. The teacher, who was left in a state of shock, was taken by ambulance to the Vannini hospital in a serious but not life-threatening condition. The boy was taken to a carabinieri station accompanied by his parents.
Investigators believe the student had a mobile phone connected to Telegram and may have tried to film the attack via a live video call; the device has been seized.
Education minister Giuseppe Valditara spoke with the school's headteacher, Wanda Giacomini, to express solidarity with the teacher and the wider school community.
In a post on X, Valditara called for minors under 15 to be barred from accessing dangerous social media channels, citing the EU Commission's proposed Kids Act as a move in the right direction.
"Clear rules must be established to protect young people and, at the same time, as we are already doing, restore in the daily life of school the respect for the authority of teachers and rules, discipline, and the sense of responsibility. We must not be afraid to state that those who make mistakes must pay", Valditara wrote.
The teaching union Gilda degli Insegnanti described the attack as "intolerable" and an assault not only on the individual but on the school system and the teaching profession as a whole, while Rome's association of headteachers ANP called for greater emphasis on educating pupils in respect, warning that young people were increasingly influenced by violent content online.
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A 13-year-old student attacked his teacher with pepper spray before stabbing her at a middle school in Rome on Friday morning, in an assault that police say the boy may have attempted to film on a live video call.
The incident took place at the Giovanni Verga school, in the eastern Collatino district of the city. According to investigators, the boy sprayed an irritant into the teacher's face before wounding her with a knife. He was stopped by a fellow pupil.
Carabinieri police officers were called to the scene after an emergency call to the 112 number. The teacher, who was left in a state of shock, was taken by ambulance to the Vannini hospital in a serious but not life-threatening condition. The boy was taken to a carabinieri station accompanied by his parents.
Investigators believe the student had a mobile phone connected to Telegram and may have tried to film the attack via a live video call; the device has been seized.
Education minister Giuseppe Valditara spoke with the school's headteacher, Wanda Giacomini, to express solidarity with the teacher and the wider school community.
In a post on X, Valditara called for minors under 15 to be barred from accessing dangerous social media channels, citing the EU Commission's proposed Kids Act as a move in the right direction.
"Clear rules must be established to protect young people and, at the same time, as we are already doing, restore in the daily life of school the respect for the authority of teachers and rules, discipline, and the sense of responsibility. We must not be afraid to state that those who make mistakes must pay", Valditara wrote.
The teaching union Gilda degli Insegnanti described the attack as "intolerable" and an assault not only on the individual but on the school system and the teaching profession as a whole, while Rome's association of headteachers ANP called for greater emphasis on educating pupils in respect, warning that young people were increasingly influenced by violent content online.
