A Milan teacher was fired from her job after she allegedly used scissors to cut the tongue of a talkative 7-year-old pupil to silence him. As she held a pair of scissors in her hand, the 22-year-old teacher apparently told a boy to "Stick out your tongue so I can cut it. That way you'll stop talking!"

She then slashed his tongue so badly that he needed five stitches to close the wound, the Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported. The child's family, who hail from North Africa have filed suit against the teacher, who has been suspended after last week's incident.

Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni said in a statement, "Faced with such grievous actions there is only one possible response: zero tolerance." However, the teacher says she was just trying to threaten the student with her act and had no real intentions of slashing the tongue. She added that the tongue got cut by accident when the boy jerked his head in response.

Anna Maria Dominici, in charge of schools in the Lombardy region said, "We are carrying out a full inquiry to find out what really happened." Dismissal procedures have begun against the teacher who is currently under suspension as the Education Minister wanted to ensure such actions are not repeated by anyone else in future.