On October 13, 2023, a year ago to the day, Dominique Bernard, 57, was killed at the Gambetta-Carnot school campus by Mohammed Mogouchkov, 20. This Sunday, October 13, 2024, the Place des Héros in Arras was filled for the ceremony paying tribute to the French teacher which began around 11 a.m., reports La Voix du Nord.
“It’s important to be there”
An alley facing the stage, lined with tables with hundreds of white roses, demarcates two spaces, one for relatives and the educational community of the Gambetta-Carnot school complex, the other for officials. Ministers Bruno Retailleau (Interior), Anne Genetet (Education), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Ecological Transition), Didier Migaud (Keeper of the Seals) but also Gabriel Attal are present. None of them will speak: only Frédéric Leturque, mayor of Arras, will give a speech during the tribute.
By 10 a.m., around fifty people had arrived in the space reserved for loved ones, family, teachers… Some people from Arrage also began to arrive, often with family, like Jean-Noël: “My daughter was in final year at Gambetta last year. She was an eyewitness and remained traumatized by what happened. The teachers and staff at the time came to support the parents and inform them. We were in anguish. I want to thank them for that. It’s important to be there to end a sequence of strong emotions and pay tribute to someone who had values that we share »
People discovered the impressive security system while the two areas reserved for relatives and officials were full.
For Jacques, a trader and lifelong Arrageois, “it’s obvious for me to be here today. I feel a duty to come out of respect for the victims and their loved ones”. Former students of Gambetta are also there like Bertille and Maxence: “This is the first tribute we have witnessed. We never thought we would experience this in Arras, a quiet town and in the high school where we went. We are here so as not to forget.”
“Cultural memory sequence”
Dominique Bernard’s wife and those close to her thought of this ceremony as a ” cultural memory sequence »explained Frédéric Leturque, with dance, music and texts read. The ceremony started with the Quartet d’Adagio du quatuor K.285 by Mozart performed by professors from the Arras conservatory and ended with notes of harp and cello.
The live creation of the artist Marielle Duroule has also ended while white roses are placed at the stele of the victims of terrorism. the crowd remained generally present on the Place des Héros, always collected.
