Thread: French Teacher sets herself on fire at school

I'm sorry BUT if she wants to kill her self why put all the children through such a traumatic experience


A DEPRESSED French maths teacher set herself on fire in a high school playground today, but she is expected to survive.

The 44-year-old doused herself in fuel during the morning break and set herself alight, one day after a stormy meeting with children in her class who found her teaching methods too strict, witnesses said.

"She should pull through," said state prosecutor Patrick Mathe, who added the woman was suffering from depression. "It was a desperate act ... there was no crime."

The teacher suffered third-degree burns in the incident at the Jean Moulin secondary school in Beziers, in southern France, and was taken by helicopter to a special unit in the city of Montpellier's university teaching hospital.

Parents and pupils at the scene said the teacher had a difficult relationship with several pupils in her math class and that a meeting with them to clear the air yesterday had become rowdy.

They said she came to school this morning with a petrol can, taught a class at 9am (local time) then, when the morning break came, walked to the centre of the yard, poured the fuel on herself and set herself alight.

"I saw her body on fire, walking forward with her hands on her head," said one student witness, Karim. "Several people tried to put her out. She said 'No, leave me alone. I don't need help. God told me to do this.'

"The teachers put a blanket over her, her clothes had melted," Karim said.

Ten days previously, parents said, she had been hostile at a parent-teacher evening at the school, refusing to address their concerns about her methods.

Four parents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the teacher had refused to help out struggling pupils, preferring to kick them out of class and concentrate on helping the stronger children progress.

They noted that she had appeared at the parents' evening with unexplained cuts and bruises. Some said the same teacher had suffered a nervous breakdown the year before and had been in trouble with school authorities.

The school - a huge institution with 3000 students and 280 teachers - sent all its pupils home after the incident.

Sounds like she was in the middle of a psychotic episode. She'll never teach again...thankfully. At least she set herself on fire and not one of the kids.

What a way to go (well almost). Can think of far more humane ways to end it all