At the specially composed assize court,
The emails sent, the calls made, the messages received… Audrey F. had recorded everything while awaiting this trial. “I would like to go back to the facts, I had taken a certain number of notes,” immediately launches the former principal of the Bois d’Aulne college, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), in which Samuel taught Paty. With its 750 students, its 55 teachers, “life was good” in this establishment, “and I think that is still the case”. “Mr. Paty was very happy to work in this college, I seem to remember that he came from a more complicated department,” she explains on the stand.
Long black hair, gray jacket, light shirt, she wishes, this Tuesday afternoon, to “retrace chronologically what happened” from October 6, 2020, the day a student launched a controversy which will be fatal to the history-geography teacher.
A “serious”, “conscientious”, “voluntary” teacher
That Tuesday, Audrey F. received a call from Z.'s mother, a 4th grade schoolgirl. “In tears,” she tells him that her 13-year-old daughter was excluded from a class the day before, “under the pretext that she was Muslim, that’s how she presents things to me.” The girl's history and geography teacher wanted to show the students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and he allegedly “asked the Muslim students to raise their finger and leave the class.” Her daughter, who “would have liked to see” these drawings, would have “experienced this common discrimination”. This event would have greatly “disturbed” this woman who “decided to talk about it to other mothers”.
Audrey F. interviews Samuel Paty, a “serious”, “conscientious”, “voluntary” and “enthusiastic” teacher. The latter “explains to him that that’s not quite how it happened”. As part of a “press freedom course”, he clearly showed the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in Charlie Hebdo. He “suggested to the students that it could offend, shock, to get out of the class”. The teacher is “annoyed”. “He really regrets that the student felt discriminated against because that was not his intention,” continues the former principal, specifying that the victim of the attack had wanted to “do things in a delicate way.” According to her, it was a “structured, rather measured course”. “I don’t see any particular deviation there. »
“An offense to the sacred”
The schoolgirl who accuses Samuel Paty, on the other hand, regularly poses a problem within the establishment. “Incivility”, unjustified “absences”, around ten hours of glue “which were not done”… Right during the Covid period, “she refuses to put on the mask even though we have a very precise protocol at this level”, underlines Audrey F. who decided to exclude him for two days to repress his disciplinary problems. A sanction which has nothing to do with the incident denounced by the young girl, she insists.
The next day, Z.'s mother showed up in his office, “excited, angry, annoyed.” She appears “aggressive” and “disrespectful”. Later in the day, it was the schoolgirl's father, Brahim Chnina, who asked to meet her. He came to accompany Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist who introduced himself to her as the “responsible for the imams of France”.
The latter “takes the lead” in the office, “revolts against what he calls an offense against the sacred”. “Impossible to discuss” with Abdelhakim Sefrioui, this “agitator” who “mixes everything”. The two men demand that the former principal of the college fire Samuel Paty, whom they describe as a “thug”.
Audrey F. feels “really threatened” by the duo who plan to “come with Muslims to demonstrate in front of the establishment and warn the media”. During this meeting, which will only last around twenty minutes, Audrey F. does not “feel very comfortable”, “even as a woman”. Above all, she feels that “a higher step” has been taken. The mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, the police, territorial intelligence, the academic inspectorate… She will alert the whole world.
“It’s so symbolic to have cut off his head”
The next day, she learned that Z. did not attend Samuel Paty's class during which he showed the famous caricatures, “she was absent”. “My arms are falling. » She summons her during recess. And the teenager “tells him, straight to his eyes, that she refused to go out when Mr. Paty showed her the caricatures and that, as a result, he gave her two days of exclusion”. The young girl lies to him “with aplomb”.
The matter does not end there since Brahim Chnina and Abdelhakim Sefrioui broadcast two videos on social networks in which they give the name of the history-geography professor. Audrey F. feels that this video will “get them into it”. Indeed, journalists call the establishment, but also people “who question the secularism of the college”. She receives threatening emails. In the courtyard, the rumor circulates that Samuel Paty “is racist and that he stigmatizes the students”. Audrey F. decides to file a complaint. To the police, she explains that she fears for the “physical integrity” of Samuel Paty.
On October 16, she finally saw the holidays arrive. “We’ll be able to breathe,” she said to herself. It was then that she learned that “something horrible had just happened, a person had just been beheaded” near the establishment. “Immediately,” she thinks of the history and geography teacher. At 7 p.m., “the information is confirmed”. “I find myself in my office, stunned. I leaned against the wall, I slipped slowly,” she told the specially composed assize court.
At the time, she said to herself that he was the victim of a real “fatwa”, “like Salman Rushdie”. “It’s so symbolic to have cut off his head,” she breathes. Today, she is consumed by guilt because she “failed” to “protect” Samuel even though she was “responsible” for it.
“As long as I hold on, it’s okay”
“What do you expect from justice? » asks the president, Franck Zientara. “I’m waiting for the guilty people to be found guilty,” she replies. Before adding: “I will not be able to move forward until these people are found guilty. »
For four years, she has “taken refuge” in work so as not to “think” about this tragedy. “I never stopped since, I didn't take care of myself, I took care of others, that's what kept me going. » “The question is not whether you take care of yourself, but when you will start to do so,” points out Me Vincent Bertault, the lawyer for SNES (National Union of Secondary Education). “As long as I hold on, it’s okay,” breathes Audrey F. Who, after almost four hours of testimony on the stand, cannot hold back her tears.
