Undercurrent of Discontent Erupts
At Terra College in Shots to Kill The Teacher

The Hague - There are residents on the Beresteinlaan in The Hague who say students at the Terra College on the same street were always getting into trouble, while others simply saw it as another ordinary school. There are those who say students from the school were misbehaving on tram line 9 and they were afraid to take the tram when it passed through the neighbourhood.

In a normal school one does not have to place surveillance cameras outside and inside the school, nor is it necessary to hand out school passes in order to see which students made it to school on time and those who were late. Mr. Hans van Wieren, 49, assistant principal of the school, must have had a reason for the installation of cameras and school passes.

Everyone knows how good it feels when the teacher announces a film would be shown during classtime. A feeling of relief from boredom and an air of expectation. He always took his economics class to the canteen when it was film time. A student, for whom Van Wieren was an advisor, said he was his friend.

At lunchtime on Tuesday the 13th of January, Van Wieren was in the canteen with many other teachers and students at Terra College on the Beresteinlaan in The Hague. A few days earlier, he took disciplinary measures against the 17-year-old student Murat D. Students said Murat had deserved the suspension by throwing chairs about in the classroom and had threatened Van Wieren with the words, "You'll be sorry".

Murat D., whose parents are from Turkey, turned up at the school at around 1 PM in the afternoon. He was met by his girl friend. He showed his girl friend that he had a hand gun. He walked into the school while his girl friend attempted to stop him. Inside, Isabelle, 16, was eating her lunch when she heard a loud bang. "I thought it was a firecracker. When, however, I looked in the direction of the economics teacher, he was lying in a pool of blood on the floor".

Witnesses said Murat D. walked into the canteen and straight over to where the teacher was sitting. At a distance of less than five meters, he fired a shot at the teacher hitting him in the head. He then turned around and walked out of the school and left the school grounds. Meanwhile, a trauma helicopter was called in to take Van Wieren to hospital. It appeared at first he would survive the shot, but later he succumbed under the severe effects of the wound.

At approximately 9 PM that evening, Murat walked into a local police precinct station in the company of a family friend and confessed to the crime.

Van Wieren has a good reputation as a teacher. He is also in politics in his hometown of Zoetermeer where he is a member of the city council on behalf of Democrats66.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende expressed his "revulsion" over the act. "This is something which should never never happen in our country". Minister Maria van der Hoeven at Education, Culture and Science, currently on a working visit in the Peoples Republic of China, could only say by telephone that the shooting was "horrendous". 14 January 2004