How perilous it was, this audience. How uncomfortable it was, the position of Jeff T., one of the rare colleagues of Samuel Paty to have “ detached » from the professor a few days before his death. How to assume “principled position” that he had four years ago without giving the impression of criticizing Samuel Paty at the trial of his assassination? How to return a “ debate educational » between two history teachers when one ended up decapitated?
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He knew it, Jeff T., as he approached the witness box of the special assize court of Paris, Wednesday, November 13, that it would be impossible for him to escape from this “ trap ”, as he says. He has never spoken in four years, and he will not speak again. “If I speak today, it’s because I have no choicehe specifies straight away. Islamism seeks to sow confusion, to make us lose our values. There is no way an argument coming from me would go in this direction. »
To understand the origin of the controversy which arose in the teachers' room of the Bois-d'Aulne college (Yvelines), we must go back to October 5, 2020, eleven days before the attack. That day, Samuel Paty gave a lesson on freedom of expression to a 4th grade class. Taking advantage of the presence of a school assistant, he suggested to students who wished to go out into the corridor while caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were shown.
“I haven’t changed my mind”
The course did not cause any major disturbances, but a student's mother was still upset with the principal of the school about the fact that her daughter had felt ” discriminated against “. The next day, Samuel Paty gives the same lesson in front of another class of 4ethat of Z., the schoolgirl through whom the tragedy happened: this time he suggests to the students who wish to look away. But Z., who was absent that day, fed her lie about the lesson given the day before, telling her parents that she had been excluded for refusing to leave the room.
On October 8, Brahim Chnina, the schoolgirl's father, and an Islamist activist, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, invited themselves into the principal's office and demanded the professor's dismissal. The next day, the principal meets the four history professors of the college to discuss the turmoil created by Mr. Paty's course, to which she provides her support. And it was on October 10 that Jeff T. expressed his disagreement in an email sent to several teachers: he explained that he “dissociate” by Samuel Paty, who according to him “furthered the cause of freedom of expression” and committed a “act of discrimination”.
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