Teen pointed gun at teacher during France riots? No, the incident in viral video is from 2018

A video has gone viral on social media where a man is seen pointing a gun at a woman inside what looks like a classroom. Another man enters the frame and makes obscene gestures while the student recording the incident can be heard laughing throughout. The video is being circulated with the claim that the incident took place in one of the schools during the 2023 riots in France.

Several Twitter users have shared the video. Most of them said “what happens in the public schools of France are starting to leak” ?(sic), indicating this was a recent incident.

Among them is a user named BrutalCams (@BrutalCams), who shared the video on July 18, 2023, claiming that the student had been later arrested and charged with aggravated violence in France. (Archive link)

Student Points A Gun At His Teacher, Gets Arrested And Charged With Aggravated Violence 🤦🏽‍♂️📍France pic.twitter.com/XDlSiCvAmt

— 🚘BrutalCams🎥 (@BrutalCams) July 18, 2023

Another user, Glynis Filyaw (@GlynisFilyaw), shared the video on July 8, 2023, as ‘leaked’ footage of a public school. (Archive link)

Videos of students filming what happens in the public schools of France are starting to leak, here in the video (published today): a “Moreno” student points a gun at the teacher during class, scaring her.
Macron’s education system is going downhill without brakes. pic.twitter.com/0nJLjdFNhp

— Glynis Filyaw (@GlynisFilyaw) July 7, 2023

Fact Check

First, we ran a reverse image search with a key-frame from the viral video and found the same video tweeted in October 2018.

Indignation unanime après l’agression d’une professeure à Créteil pic.twitter.com/MYsHvD40UF

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 21, 2018

So, it is clear that the incident is not related to the recent unrest in France.

Next, we ran a keyword search and found an article by BBC published on October 21, 2018. According to the article, a French teen from Creteil (a Parisian suburb) had pointed a fake gun at his teacher and was unaware that he was being filmed by one of his classmates. In the video, he can be heard shouting in French, asking the teacher to mark him as present. After the teacher made a complaint to the police, the 15-year-old turned himself in and was charged with aggravated violence, according to the report.

The incident was addressed by French President Emmanuel Macron. He called the act of threatening a teacher unacceptable and also stated that he had asked then education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and interior minister Christophe Castaner to take strict measures in this regard.

Menacer un professeur est inacceptable. J’ai demandé au ministre de l’Éducation nationale et au ministre de l’Intérieur de prendre toutes les mesures pour que ces faits soient punis et définitivement proscrits de nos écoles.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 20, 2018

According to a report by Euronews, after pointing the gun at the teacher, the student ordered the teacher to move her head. The report also talked about how the incident led to many French teachers opening up on abuse faced at educational institutes and the lack of support that they received.

Therefore, the claim that the incident happened during the recent riots in France is false and the gun used by the teenager was fake. The incident took place in the year 2018.

Kajol Nanavati is an intern at Alt News.