A 16-year-old girl died and another teenager was injured in an attack by a former student, a south city official said.
A 16-year-old girl was killed and another injured in a shooting at a school in the southern Brazilian state of Parana, local officials in the city of Cambay said.
The gunman, a former student, aged around 20 or 21, entered Professor Helena Collodi State School on Monday to retrieve some documents, spokesman Thiago Mosini told The Associated Press.
Once inside the building, the man fired at least a dozen shots before being restrained by a school employee, Mosini said. The alleged attacker was later arrested by the police.
The injured student, a 17-year-old, remains in critical condition, Londrina University Hospital said in a statement Monday evening. The medical team said that the patient’s critical condition did not allow him to be taken to the operating room at this time, even though a catheter was required.
The young man’s father, Rodrigo Augusto, told TV network Globo News earlier Monday that his son still had a bullet lodged in his head. “It’s my birthday. We’re usually together all day on my birthday, and then… today I couldn’t get up in the morning,” Augusto said.
Images circulated on TV and social media showed dozens of students gathered outside the school, some crying, as an ambulance approached the gates.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on his official Twitter account on Monday, “However, we can no longer tolerate in our schools and societies one more young life taken away by hatred and violence.”
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Flavio Dino indicated that part of the blame lies with Internet culture. In a speech, he called the “irresponsible spread of violence and hate messages on the Internet” one of the most pressing issues today.
Brazil has seen nearly two dozen attacks or violent episodes at schools since 2000, half of them in the past 14 months.
On April 5, for example, an attack on a daycare center killed four children and prompted the government to launch an unprecedented crackdown. About 3,400 police officers have carried out nationwide operations to arrest hundreds of people accused of spreading hate speech or inciting violence at schools.
Lula at the time called the daycare attack an “absurd act of hatred and cowardice.”
“There is no greater pain than a family that loses a child or grandchild, even in cases of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” he wrote on Twitter.
In March, a teacher was killed and five others injured in a stabbing in Sao Paulo. The suspect in that attack was allegedly inspired by a 2019 school shooting.
And in November 2022, three were killed and 11 injured after former students opened fire at two schools in the southeastern state of Espirito Santo.
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