This Monday, October 16, students in France pay tribute to two murdered teachers, Dominique Bernard, stabbed last Friday in Arras, and Samuel Paty, history teacher killed three years ago in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The start of the school year was postponed by two hours to allow teachers to meet and discuss how to talk to their students about these attacks. At midday, a minute of silence to commemorate the two deceased was observed in the establishments.
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In front of the establishment’s gate, it looks like an ordinary Monday morning, reports our reporter in front of the Henri Matisse college in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Valentin Hugues. College students with their backpacks chat among themselves while waiting for the doors to open. But everyone seems aware of what is happening, and talks about it willingly.
In their words, we detect emotion, anger, but they do not apprehend this moment of contemplation – the minute of silence at midday – which awaits them. For some of these college students, barely teenagers, it is already the second time that they have experienced a tribute in memory of a killed teacher. Three years ago, they saluted the memory of the teacher Samuel Paty.
“ We were all gathered in the courtyard and they explained to us what had happened with Samuel Paty and we all had to do a minute of silence. To see that after Samuel Paty, there was that againit still hurts », remembers a schoolboy. “ It’s quite frustrating that people are still getting killed. », Retorts another. “ It’s obviously very sad… “, ” We’re still a little in shock », Testify other comrades.
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A desire for dialogue and sharing with teachers
For these young people, this tribute is part of the notion of memory and respect for Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty, both of whose names they know well. Above all, these tragic events lead to a desire to exchange and discuss.
Vincent is in 5th grade. He is in a hurry to find your teachers. “ I definitely want to support them. I have a few questions to ask them, I’m going to ask them for their point of view on the situation, what they think about it. I want to ask them if they are afraid that it will happen to them too, how they plan to manage the situation, and then we will debate about it, and we will try to make sure that it goes as well as possible.. »
In schools, the minute of silence observed at midday served to calm certain students. “ It did us good, I think everyone was shocked by this news, so the fact that we could express ourselves, it relieved us all and I found it good that they let us put words about this tragic situation », confides Pablo, a high school student in his final year at La Fontaine high school in Paris, at the microphone of Laurence Théault.
For him, in addition to listening from parents or brothers and sisters, “ the teacher can both confirm the solidity of national education, he can assert the power of education, he can affirm the power that letters and sciences have. They can also reassure us that despite terrorist acts which are shocking, there is an institution which is strong and which will not be dismantled with a terrorist attack, and that it is not extremist ideologies which will bring down this whole education system in France », Estimates the student.
Pablo, final year student at La Fontaine high school in Paris
“ It’s scary »
However, some admit it: the words “terrorism” and “assassination” scare them. Eliott, for example, questions the security of educational establishments. “ I think we should put systems in place to prevent people from entering middle and high schools like that, it’s still a bit scary, this happens to us everywhere at any time. ! », says the boy. Without necessarily imagining setting up a portico or a guard at the entrance, the schoolboy would like there to be “ at least a system so that we are told that there is someone who has broken into the college “.
Despite everything, the middle school students interviewed do not fear returning to class. Informed, they know what happened. They are moved, shocked, but these events still seem very far away to them.
At 10 a.m. sharp, they rushed to the college gates to enter. They had to present their correspondence book, open their backpack for a check and then ten minutes later, the doors were locked. Security measures that will now be part of their daily lives.
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