Tunisia : A campaign to confiscate scissors from students in Hammamet after the “Sfax Incident”

A number of parents of students in the city of Hammamet, northeastern Tunisia, said that “a kind of phobia” spread among the educational staff and parents in primary and middle schools following the “Scissors in Sfax” incident.

A number of speakers said in a statement to Radio Mosaique that a skirmish occurred on Wednesday between two students at a basic school in the city of Bir Bourqaba, which caused a student to be injured on the face, and the injury was described as minor.

According to the same sources, the spread of the news, as well as what happened in Sfax, created a state of fear among a number of principals and educators in a number of schools in the delegation of Hammamet, which made them carry out a campaign to collect scissors from students’ pencil cases for fear of repeating incidents similar to the Sfax incident.

A number of parents also expressed their fear of the level of rampant violence in schools, especially after a garbage can was thrown at a student by her classmates in a middle school in the middle of the bathrooms, and another student was injured at the level of the mouth after she was thrown with a water bottle by her sports teacher.

A number of parents are calling on the Ministry of Education to intervene to develop plans to limit the spread of violence in schools, whether by reducing the burden of study on students or by enhancing information, awareness, and activities among educators, parents, and students alike.

It is worth noting that Al-Muna School in the Al-Sabai area in Sfax witnessed a painful incident in late February, where a student attacked his colleague in the classroom with scissors and gouged out his eye.

In light of the scissors incident, the authorities issued a prison ticket against a teacher and the school principal.