What Is The 'Pen Girl Incident,' And Why Shouldn't You Watch The Video? The Disturbing Clip Explained

It seems there's always a disturbing viral video going around these days, and once again, there's one to avoid on your social media feed as of late. This one appears to be a clip of a class presentation in Manaus, Brazil, but it turns violent very quickly.

By now, many have heard of the "Pen Girl Incident," but there's a lot of false information and speculation clouding the news, as well as an inability for many to sit through the video. Fortunately, there's no need to watch the video at all — instead, here's everything you need to know about the now-famous incident and why it's being discussed online.

What Is the Pen Girl Incident?

On May 8th, 2023, a male student in Brazil was giving a group presentation to his ninth-grade class. He was helping to hold a poster and became irritated with a girl sitting in the front row, who was supposedly laughing during the presentation. Instead of ignoring this, his response was to calmly reach into his pocket and pull out a pen, walk up to her, and stab her in the face with it multiple times.

The other students in the classroom reacted to the incident with shock and another student tried to stop him, but before it was over, the female student was stabbed in the face, neck, shoulders and back. Though some rumors about the incident claim she was stabbed in the eyes rather than the face, this is unfounded.

The 14-year-old perpetrator of the attack was later arrested and faces a charge analogous to attempted murder. It's unknown what happened to the victim.

A full video of the incident can be seen on the /r/PublicFreakout subreddit, but be warned it's graphic. There is no blood or clear injury seen, but there is sound. This is still a gore video, and it is disturbing to many. Here's a censored clip, instead, posted from Brazil after the incident:

@random.realidadpura Niño de 13 años en Brasil apuñala a su compañera del mismo grado después de que ella se burlara de su presentación. El niño saca lo que parece ser lapiz o lapicero y se lo clava multiples veces en su cara. No se sabe el paradero de ambos niños hasta ahora. #bullying #brasil #escuela #fyp #fypシ #fypage #fypシ゚viral #parati #paratii #news ♬ sonido original – ⚠️ Spread Awareness ⚠️

How Is The Pen Girl Incident Discussed Online?

The video resurfaced in the U.S. at the end of January 2024, and people are reacting with shock to the incident and wondering what exactly was going through that male student's mind. Though there's not much actual gore in the video, it's being treated like any other viral gore video since it's particularly upsetting that the people involved were minors. The video is still circulating on platforms with more lenient rules about content.

At the same time, people are attempting to capitalize on the trend by making more edited videos about it, often in a very tiny frame to avoid having their video demonetized. There's also a version recreated with Wojaks.

@spicy4giselle Pen girl video explained.. #scary #pengirl #school #ive #spicy4giselle #kpop #fypppp #viral #foryou ♬ original sound – SKYLAR ⚡️

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To learn more about the Pen Girl Incident, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.