Teachers at a school in Brussels attended by Bilal Hadfi, one of the nine terrorists who carried out the November Paris attacks, claim that they attempted to warn the authorities that their student harbored radical beliefs. These warnings were ignored. Chris Pijpen, Hadfi's instructor, reported his student's radicalization last April. An email written by Pijpen, dated April 27, said that Hadfi had been absent from school since late February. The student's mother and aunt said that he had travelled to Morocco to live with relatives, but rumors circulated that he had instead gone to Syria to train with other jihadists, according to RT News.
Hadfi killed scores of spectators by blowing himself up outside the national soccer stadium in Paris on Nov. 13. His suicide, along with eight other individuals acting in coordination, killed 130 in total.
Belgian law states that schools and teachers must report potential terrorist behavior to the authorities. Pijpen sent his email to Charles Huygen, a Belgian education official. Huygen did not, however, alert the police. His failure to act is particularly troubling due to the fact that Hadfi had been on a list of terrorist suspects compiled by a Belgian anti-terror watchdog, according to The Examiner.
"I expected that something would happen," said Pijpen to the New York Times. "Some further action, at least someone from the administration that would come down to our school, or the police. I was amazed that nothing happened. This was already after Charlie Hebdo and Verviers."
Verviers, a Belgian town, was the site of a police shooting of two men suspected of planning a terrorist attack.
Pijpen was suspended by Huygens shortly after the attack, purportedly for arriving late to a meeting. Pijpen believed that he was being punished for his superior's mistake. "The administration wanted to cover this up so they can move on," he said, according to the Inquisitr.
