A 14-year-old Brazilian student attacked two nine-year-old girls with an ax at the Alcântara Costa Municipal School in the rural area of the city of Farias Brito in the state of Ceará on Wednesday, gravely injuring one of the girls.
The incident marks the second ax attack in a Brazilian school in a single week after a 25-year-old man killed four children with an axe and injured five more at a Brazilian daycare center on April 5.
It is the fourth school attack in Brazil in less than a month. Also this week, a child reportedly either 12 or 13 years old attacked two students and a teacher at the Adventist Institute of Manaus on Monday. A 13-year-old student stabbed four teachers and a classmate in a school in São Paulo on March 27, killing a 71-year-old teacher.
Brazilian news website UOL reported that the assailant in Wednesday’s attack, who is a ninth grade student of the same school whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, entered the school’s fourth grade classroom and suddenly attacked the victims with the ax he had brought concealed to school. Witnesses stated that the 14-year-old assailant was immobilized and detained by one of the school’s teachers before Brazilian Military Police apprehended him.
One of the girls suffered a superficial injury on the head and was discharged on the same day. The other victim suffered a deep injury on the frontal region of her head that left her skull exposed. She was transferred to the pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Santo Antônio hospital in Barbalha with stable vital signs and general condition, and underwent surgery Wednesday evening.
The assailant was transferred to the regional police station of Crato, where he will be processed for attempted homicide, according to the Secretary of Public Security of Ceará.
The Farias Brito Municipal Prefecture released a public statement via social media on Wednesday in which it expressed regret over the incident and sympathy for the families of the victims. The local government claimed that the school had immediately adopted disciplinary measures for the assailant and is providing assistance to those involved, including psychological and medical follow-up for the victims and their families.
“We deeply regret what happened and we sympathize with the families of the victims. The municipal administration is taking all the necessary measures to investigate the case,” the statement read. “We emphasize that student safety is a priority for the municipal administration and that we are working to ensure that all municipal schools have a safe and welcoming environment for students.”
The governor of the state of Ceará, Elmano de Freitas – who is currently in China as part of the official delegation of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – lamented the attack via Twitter while expressing that the state government will do whatever is necessary to support the municipality and families.
“Even on an official mission to China, I have followed this regrettable episode of violence that took place today at a municipal school in Farias Brito, in the Cariri Region,” de Freitas said. “Our government will provide whatever is necessary to support the municipality and families.”
Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security Flavio Dino announced on Wednesday that his ministry will immediately publish a new ordinance that will install administrative processes to “determine the responsibility of virtual platforms in defending violence” and will request a report from each social network on the measures adopted for content moderation, allegedly to “increase safety in schools.”
The law will impose fines or outright suspend social media platforms in Brazil if they fail to remove content that the government deems incites school violence.
The Brazilian minister alleged that, in light of the recent wave of attacks on schools, the discussion of “permissible content” on social networks “has become a fundamental issue” for Brazilian society.
“The life of a child is greater than the terms of use of a technology platform,” Dino said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.