Extinguishing a Human Torch

Karim, a student, said: "It was a vision of the apocalypse. It seemed totally strange and unreal. I saw a body on fire going forward with her hands on her head. Several of us tried to put it out. She kept saying, 'No, leave me, I don't need your help. God told me to do this.' The teachers put a sheet over her because her clothes had melted."

Some parts of rural France, as elsewhere in the country, have changed markedly from the original indigenous population with its traditions and culture and social contract, to one undergoing a massive change with the introduction of immigrants from former French colonies in Africa. The prevailing culture has had to adapt itself to a changing social environment.

One which has not exactly been enriched by the introduction of crime, drugs, unemployment and poverty. And children, raised within their families in a manner quite different than that the French have long been accustomed to. Children appear freer to express themselves, rather than exhibit the respect due to status and age reflecting French tradition.

The result is unruly classrooms, where discipline has become an ongoing problem. Some teachers appear capable of dealing with the new reality, others appear not to be able to. One such teacher for whom control of her classroom became a menace to her health and an affront to the parents of young people whom she was tasked to teach, but whom she ignored if they did not comply, set herself afire.

She is a 44-year-old math teacher, teaching at Jean Moulin Lycee in Beziers, southern France. With a personal history of depression it is likely she should have been in another profession rather than teaching young rebellious teen-age students. Another teacher described her act as one "of someone who was desperate"; she had suffered a nervous breakdown the year before.

"It happened during the break. I heard the pupils shouting and I saw someone running across the playground transformed into a human torch", said one of her colleagues. She had poured gas over herself and screamed at the students, out in the courtyard at classroom break: "This is for you", and then lit herself afire.

The local newspaper quoted colleagues in describing this teacher as an "old-fashioned type of teacher", a strict disciplinarian who often excluded difficult students. Her teaching methods resulted in classroom conflict, and although she met with the students nothing was resolved, the meeting ended in chaos.

Chaos more than adequately describes this poor woman's life. It is abundantly clear that once she is physically healed she should be searching for another profession to possibly give her some satisfaction in life.*

*The teacher has since died as a result of her self-inflicted injuries. It is dreadfully sad, to be certain.
But this woman also was clearly unfit to teach young people. Even young teens who are defiant and difficult to discipline. It is obvious that she meant to punish them. The supreme punishment, as she saw it, was to leave them to live out their lives with a sense of guilt that their unsupportable behaviour was the cause of her death.
And she left them with the indelible memory of herself, a human torch, suffering untold agonies, because of their recalcitrance.
Who is more guilty of an unforgivable breach in human relations - they, or she?