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STAFF RESTRAINED 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL BEFORE SHE COULD INJURE ANYONE - THE LATEST CASE OF WEAPONS BROUGHT TO SCHOOL A TEENAGE girl is to appear in court later this month accused of threatening a

fellow pupil with a meat-cleaver in a row over a mobile phone. According to a TV report on France 3 Méditerrannée, the 15-year-old girl was restrained by staff at the _collège_ in

Carqueiranne in the Var and no one was injured. She has been temporarily excluded from school until after the court hearing in Toulon, which is due at the end of March. The government is

under increasing pressure to do more about school violence following a number of attacks involving pupils with knives and other weapons. Education Minister Luc Chatel has promised that each

of France's 8,000 _collèges_ and _lycées_ will be patrolled by a mobile security team, made up of school staff and gendarmes whose job is to prevent conflicts and take action if

violence breaks out. Other security measures that could be introduced by the end of the academic year include more CCTV and metal detectors in a small number of schools considered to present

the highest risk. An update on the project is due next month.