Overview
- A 13-year-old student attacked a 66-year-old history teacher at Istituto Giovanni Verga in Centocelle, Rome, spraying pepper spray and stabbing her before classmates intervened; the teacher was taken to Ospedale Vannini and is not in life-threatening condition.
- A classmate disarmed and restrained the attacker, and the boy was detained by Carabinieri and taken to the local barracks with his parents while a psychiatric consult was carried out at Policlinico Umberto I.
- Investigators seized the student’s smartphone and are forensically examining it alongside his social accounts, searching Telegram groups and violent online communities to establish whether he attempted to livestream the assault and whether any instigators were involved.
- Classmates and school sources say the boy posted a five-hour countdown on TikTok before entering class and had two knives and pepper spray bought online, but authorities say the alleged motive of anger over a failing grade remains unverified.
- Officials and unions are demanding stronger school safety measures, more mental health support for students and limits on minors’ access to dangerous social platforms as authorities probe ties to extremist 'true crime' communities and broader patterns of online radicalization.