An elementary school student in South Korea has died after she was allegedly stabbed by a teacher in an attempted murder-suicide. The unnamed female teacher, who also had stab wounds that police say may have been self-inflicted, was found beside the female student on the second floor of the Daejeon school around 6pm local time Monday, per the BBC. The 8-year-old student had stab wounds to the face and neck, per Reuters. Her heart reportedly stopped before she was pronounced dead at a hospital. The teacher in her 40s was hospitalized and later confessed to the crime, Yonhap reports.
Found conscious with stab wounds to the neck and arm, she had taken a leave of absence from work while suffering from depression, but returned to school late last year, per Yonhap. The BBC reports she had requested a six-month leave on Dec. 9 but returned to school 20 days later after a doctor determined she was fit to work. Days before the stabbing, she'd put another teacher in a headlock, prompting a Monday morning visit from officials from the education office, who recommended she be put on leave.
She was reportedly put "under close watch" in the vice principal's office before somehow managing to lure the student into the media room, the BBC reports. She allegedly told police she had brought a weapon to school with the intention of killing herself and a student—any student. The victim, who was signed up for after-school child care, was reportedly among the last students at the school. "It pains me to see such incidents because a school should be our safest space," South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok said Tuesday, urging authorities to "implement necessary measures to ensure such incidents never happen again." (More South Korea stories.)
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