Indonesian High School Student Stabs Teacher to Death for Not Letting Him Smoke in School

This article originally appeared on VICE Indonesia.

On Monday, Oct. 21, Alexander Pengket appeared at his job as a Catholic Religion teacher at Ichtus Vocational School in Manado, North Sulawesi in Indonesia. When the 54-year-old saw three students smoking on campus, he reprimanded them.

Another teacher who witnessed the incident sent the three teenage boys home. They did, but one of them held tightly onto a grudge against Pengket.

This unidentified student, 16 years old, went back to his school armed with a knife and unhampered emotions, and waited for Pengket to exit the school. The student immediately pounced on the teacher, stabbed him nine times, and fled the scene. Pengket was rushed to a nearby hospital.

“I heard the way he reprimanded those kids. He wasn’t rough with them. It’s a teacher’s job to intervene for their students’ own good,” Agustin Dumanang, a school staff member who witnessed the incident told local media. “I saw it with my own eyes. It happened so quickly and we were in shock.”

Due to the nine wounds to his chest, Pengket arrived at the hospital in critical condition. He was quickly transferred to another hospital, where he died the same day.

“We asked for the cooperation of the parents in locating and turning in their son. Roughly four hours after the incident occurred, his family brought him in,” Muhlis Suhani, head of the local police division, told local media.

The case has reached the Department of Education. “I’ve been to the school and met with the principal. I will soon announce what the Department of Education’s next step will be,” Grace Punuh, the department’s regional head told local media.

Psychologist Orley Chariti Sualang said that acts of killing committed by children can often be explained by the Aggressive Frustration Theory.

“Frustration is the feeling of disappointment that results from hindered goals. The more intense the frustration, the higher the likelihood the individual will commit aggressive acts. The student in question chose to stab his teacher in part because he observed and learned from his environment, possibly from family or friends,” Sualang told local media.