The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, announced a state complaint against a student from a Parisian high school accused of slanderous denunciation. After being asked to remove her veil at the entrance to her establishment, she accused the principal of violence. The latter was subsequently targeted by dozens of death threats. The affair outrages the political class.
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Wednesday evening on TF1, the Prime Minister takes up the cause of the principal, whom he received the same day at Matignon. Gabriel Attal denounces “ attacks on secularism ” And ” attempts at Islamist entryism “.
The case dates back to February 28. That day, three BTS students from the Maurice-Ravel high school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris presented themselves veiled. The principal, keen to enforce the law (since 2004, ostentatious religious symbols have been banned in schools), reminds them that they must remove their veil. One of the three students chose to ignore the injunction and an altercation ensued. The high school student, who claims to have been hit in the arm, will then file a complaint.
If the complaint is dismissed, the matter does not stop there. The director of the school complex is targeted by name on social networks with death threats. An investigation into cyberharassment is opened and two individuals are arrested. One of them, aged 26, with no connection to the school, is due to be tried on April 23.
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The shadows of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard
Faced with pressure, the principal, close to retirement, decides to leave the establishment. This is in any case what is indicated in a message sent Tuesday March 26 by the successor of the head of the establishment to teachers, students and parents. It is mentioned “ security reasons “.
For its part, the rectorate mentions “ personal convenience ” and one ” early retirement “. The Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, speaks to the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Assembly about a “ special leave of absence » and assures that the principal has not resigned.
Heads of establishments alone to enforce the law
The affair, which occurs 20 years after the law on religious symbols, is a reminder of how secularism has been abused in recent years in French schools. There are the most tragic examples of the Islamist assassinations of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, in 2020 and 2021. But also cases like those at the Maurice-Ravel high school in the face of which the heads of establishments seem helpless. If Minister Belloubet had visited the high school at the beginning of March, this did not prevent the departure of the principal.
Obviously in the political class, both on the left and on the far right, we denounce a “failure”. A “collective failure”, for the leader of the socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud. The consequence of “ small cowardices and big renunciations », according to the boss of the Republican senators, Bruno Retailleau. The top of the Reconquest list! (far right) in the European elections, Marion Maréchal, speaks of a defeat of the State on “ “Islamist gangrene” or even the radicalization of part of the youth “.
A 26-year-old young man from Hauts-de-Seine was arrested and must be tried on April 23 in Paris for having threatened to kill him on the internet. The Prime Minister announced Wednesday a complaint for “ slanderous denunciation » against the young woman. An investigation had been opened in Paris for cyberharassment.
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