A Catholic school community in Leeds in the United Kingdom is in mourning after a teacher was stabbed and killed in class.
Ann Maguire, who taught Spanish and Religious Education at Corpus Christi College, was repeatedly stabbed in front of a class of 30 pupils.
A 15-year-old male has been charged with murder after being questioned by police.
The boy cannot be named for legal reasons.
This is believed to be the first time that a teacher has been killed by a pupil inside a British school.
Mrs Maguire was 61-years-old and married with two adult daughters.
She taught at the school for 40 years and was going to retire in a few months.
The Daily Mail reported that in her last moments, Mrs Maguire’s thoughts were for her students.
She begged them to flee rather than see what was happening.
Fellow teacher at Corpus Christi Margaret Freeman said Mrs Magurie was “a brilliant teacher, but even more than that she was a really good person, one of life’s good guys”, who went the extra mile for her students.
Hundreds attended Mass the day after the killing at the church of Corpus Christi where Mrs Maguire was an active parishioner.
Many floral tributes have been laid outside the school by current and former pupils.
The Pope, Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband have each paid tribute to Mrs Maguire.
In the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said Mrs Maguire’s death was a “tragedy”.
“She cared so much about her pupils that she had come in on her day off to help prepare them for exams,” he said.
In the letter to the Diocese of Leeds, the Vatican’s ambassador Archbishop Antonio Mennini asked for the message of “sincere sympathy” to be conveyed on behalf of himself and Pope Francis.
Bishop Malcom McMahon, who chairs the Catholic Education Service in England, called the killing a “senseless tragedy”.
Sources