“Render his honor” to his brother in the midst of all the tributes pronounced two years after the assassination and beheading of Samuel Paty by an Islamist terrorist. This is the approach of his youngest sister, Mickaëlle, who came to participate, this October 15 at La Sorbonne, in the award ceremony organized by the Association of History and Geography Teachers (APHG) and bearing the name of the teacher. who worked in a college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). About forty groups of students from all over France participated in this first edition on the theme: “Are we still free to express ourselves?”. “I dedicate this speech to all the dead, injured, tortured or incarcerated people in the world for having dared to speak out. I do this to make it clear that we do not put a “yes, but” after the word decapitation. France, we put a point”, states the young woman in front of the public gathered in the prestigious amphitheater Richelieu. Opposite her stands the Minister of National Education. “By killing Samuel Paty, the Islamists wanted to suppress culture, intelligence and the very possibility of teaching. As this event and this prize demonstrate, they have not succeeded and will not succeed”, declared Pap Ndiaye, who will succeed him at the microphone.
Mickaëlle Paty’s speech was eagerly awaited. On April 6, 2022, the latter and part of her family filed a complaint against the State for “non-assistance to anyone in danger”. The anti-terrorism investigating judges have just completed their investigations. On the rue de Grenelle side, a report from the General Inspectorate for Education, Sport and Research (Igesr) was delivered on December 3, 2020, less than two months after the tragedy. “Both at the level of the establishment and at the departmental and academic levels, the provisions have been taken with reactivity to manage the disturbance initially aroused by the course on freedom of expression by Samuel Paty”, concluded the text. Before, however, issuing some “recommendations” to better prevent the reproduction of similar acts. Since then, several voices have been raised to point out the many flaws and malfunctions that led to the terrible outcome. Including that of David di Nota, author of the book “I executed a hound from hell. Report on the assassination of Samuel Paty” (ed. Le Cherche Midi).
This October 15, at La Sorbonne, Mickaëlle Paty wanted personalities such as the philosophers Catherine Kintzler and Henri Pena Ruiz to be present; the historian Patrick Weil; the designer Coco, formerly of Charlie Hebdo who joined Release ; Riss, the editor of Charlie Hebdo… In her speech, the young woman also thanks the rapper Kaotik 747, author of a title sung in duet with the artist Gino, who pays tribute to her brother and to all the teachers. “Because there are causes and values which are non-partisan and which must be universalist to say” this is the last time “”, specifies the young woman from the outset.
Many teachers still threatened today
“No, Samuel, is not responsible for his own death”, affirms the one who, in her speech, will endeavor to take up very precisely the course and the content of her brother’s two courses given within the framework of the program of 4th grade moral and civic education. The first had as its theme “Study of the situation: freedom of the press”. And the second exposed a “dilemma situation: to be or not to be Charlie”. During this course, “three caricatures representing the Prophet Muhammad are shown for a few seconds, these caricatures being from the Canopé network of National Education”, recalls Mickaëlle Paty. The question asked that day was: should we not publish these cartoons to avoid violence or should we publish these cartoons to make freedom live? “In summary, Samuel did not praise the caricature but he defended the freedom to draw one”, underlines the professor’s sister, recalling that in French law, “there is no offense punishing attacks on deities, dogmas, beliefs or religious symbols, in other words blasphemy”. And the young woman insisted on the importance of making the difference between attacks “on beliefs” and attacks “on believers”.
Samuel Paty’s sister then evokes a crucial point, a source of various interpretations, misunderstandings, even accusations for two years. “During the projection of the cartoons for a few seconds, Samuel suggests and not imposes on the students who would be afraid of being shocked not to look or to go out when an AVS (school life assistant, editor’s note) is present, and not only to Muslim children,” she says. It is precisely this act of thoughtfulness that will give rise to the accusations that will fall on Samuel Paty. The latter being suspected of having, by his “clumsiness”, “offended” some students (remember that the young girl at the origin of the cabal led against the teacher was absent that day). “By giving the fake the appearance of the real, we end up passing off secular behavior for racist behavior”, denounces his sister.
And the young woman to question: “How many children felt offended? The answer is in the National Education report: two, let’s admit three if we also count the young girl absent”, out of the 60 who made up the two classes concerned. This will have had, according to her, the consequence of passing a minority reaction as a majority, making her brother “guilty in the eyes of all of discrimination”. Finally, the fact of “recognizing that he may have made a mistake by asking him to apologize” would, according to Mickaëlle Paty, validate “an Islamist campaign led by falsely indignant parents”. “This campaign under cover of Islamophobia, this veil of impunity which makes hate propaganda possible, this atmospheric jihadism will be responsible for Samuel’s death, she continues. In atmospheric jihadism, there is no there is no dilution of responsibility, each has his own. And to recognize it, that is what would serve to manifest the truth”. Challenging the followers of “yes, but” and the “guilt reversers”, the youngest of the Paty family questions: “between the one who shows thoughtfulness to propose not to see the caricatures and the one who reinforces the noisy complaints of parents crumpled, who gives arguments to the Islamists?
A speech that finds particular resonance at a time when, two years after the attack on Samuel Paty, society as a whole does not necessarily seem to have learned all the lessons from this infernal spiral. The events of recent weeks have again shown that many teachers today feel threatened in their duties and that the “no waves” is unfortunately still relevant. In the course of her speech, Mickaëlle Paty will quote the note from the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) dated August 27. This evoked an anti-secular offensive carried out on social networks aimed at destabilizing the school institution, and denounced the few establishment staff participating “implicitly in the spread of Salafo-Frère rhetoric at school”. “It will be more and more difficult to contort the facts and manipulate on purpose without clearly displaying activism with Islamist ideology”, launches Mickaëlle Paty.
To conclude, the young woman offers to read a text that a former student wrote after the teacher’s death: “Thank you for the work you have done, you have taught me history and geography like no one else had. done before. Thank you for being my teacher for two years. Thank you for being a certain way in my life (we saw each other from Monday to Friday anyway). Thank you for his jokes at the end of class, of course which weren’t really funny but, at least, he was trying to make sure that if we were going badly, it could cheer us up. Thank you sir, thank you for everything”. This is what we will remember from Mickaëlle Paty’s speech dedicated to her brother: the image of an exemplary professional, concerned about his students, attached to republican and secular values, to the transmission of his knowledge. And the young woman to recall: “he fulfilled his duty and he held this position for 23 years. Until 2020, for the last time”. At the end of his speech the room applauded standing.