A video of a 15-year old student in Paris threatening his teacher with a fake weapon evoked outrage from French politicians.
The footage of the incident, which reportedly occurred on Thursday, shows the teenager towering over his seated teacher and pointing a weapon (later revealed to be an air gun) at her.
"You've marked me absent. Mark me as present," the gun-toting student shouts.
The teacher however appeared calm during the entire ordeal, enduring the student’s threats and filing a complaint with the police the next day.
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also issued a joint statement, saying that they intend to discuss ways to end violence in schools in low-income city suburbs during a top-level meeting next week.
"School is the cradle of the Republic and it is where we learn to respect the Republic," Castaner said, vowing to "recapture the Republic square meter by square meter" from lawless elements.
The suspect himself however insisted that his actions were merely a “joke” and that he was simply angry at the teacher who marked him as absent while he was only late for class.