Almost everywhere in France, there were times of exchange between students and teachers. How can we explain the inexplicable after the death of the teacher killed during a knife attack on October 13, in a high school in Arras? It was a question of paying a double tribute to Dominique Bernard and to Samuel Paty assassinated 3 years earlier. The teachers listened to the students and tried to answer their questions and concerns. The testimony of a teacher and several students from the Jean de La Fontaine high school in Paris.
He took a cigarette out of the pack with his teeth, it was break time for this mathematics teacher, according to him it was essential to interact with the students after the assassination of a teacher in the Arras high school : “ We all said to ourselves that starting a lesson abruptly, for me it’s maths, but it could be other subjects, it was perhaps also saying that we put this act under silence, under the carpet. And I think that the common desire of the teachers was not that, it was above all to take a break. Some students were able to cope with this alone in their corner or in a way that was not necessarily appropriate. Discussing this subject with teachers can perhaps help certain students to “empty their bag”. »
As with this student who was able to speak about what had happened in Arras: “ We were able to discuss this subject, he was a French teacher. Everyone thinks it’s a horrible thing and it shouldn’t happen. School is a place, a shelter where we can take refuge, it is our second home and it is where we build our future. »
“ We attack thought and freedom »
After this moment spent with his teacher, at the age of 13, Mathis understood that school must be a sanctuary. Serious face, Pablo is in his final year, the discussion took place with a philosophy professor and you can hear it: “ For centuries, it has been education that has shaped ideas, reading, learning that has enabled the development of critical thinking. Attacking school means wanting to restrict the minds of others and putting students in a box and thus being able to manipulate them. When we attack school, we attack thought and freedom and that is very serious. »
Hood and jacket zipped up, Oscar judges that it is too early to speak: “ I have heard a lot of confusion about Islam just because of the emotion this assassination aroused. Hindsight is important, perhaps more than discussion. You have to internalize all of this and think about it before expressing yourself on the subject. »
Welcoming students this Monday morning also eases their anxieties. Every day, on social networks, bloody news intrudes and raises questions and emotions among young people. Marie saw the body of the murdered professor: “ You really have to be prepared to watch these videos of such violence, published on social networks. You have to talk about it with the teachers after watching them and that is, I think, the only way to get over it. »
Marie and her classmates thank their teachers but they also say they are worried about them.