Before Samuel Paty, teachers already targeted in a France on anti-terrorism red alert

The assassination of Samuel Paty, on October 16, 2020, was in no way a clap of thunder in a calm sky. Firstly due to the context of anti-terrorism alert, uninterrupted since January 7, 2015: some 25 attacks between this date and January 1^is January 2020. At the start of autumn 2020, the results of the year are already bad: a first knife attack in Villejuif in January (one dead, two injured), a second in Romans-sur-Isère in April (two dead and five injured), a third during the same month in Colombes (three police officers injured, two seriously).

The authorities also know that, on September 2, the opening of the trial for the attack on Charlie Hebdo, a symbol of Islamist hatred for freedom of expression in all its forms, is a very high risk event. On the eve of the trial, the weekly republished the caricatures against the prophet, with an editorial stating: “ We don’t…