The wife of the teacher murdered by an Islamist terrorist on October 13 in Arras (Pas-de-Calais) gave an interview to the newspaper Le Monde.
A year after the assassination of her husband by an Islamist terrorist in front of the Gambetta high school in Arras (Pas-de-Calais) where he taught French, Isabelle Bernard, the widow of Dominique Bernard, told the daily The World his first interview.
A literary prize in the name of Dominique Bernard
“I am not someone who has collapsed and I do not want to collapse. I am driven by action, I need to move forward by leading projects,” she said, feeling that she felt a mission entrusted to her. “Dominique did not die of an accident or illness, but of a terrorist attack. He was assassinated because he was a teacher and because he embodied the Republic. I need to be there to defend and transmit its humanist values”, explains the English teacher in this interview. To do this, she notably launched the literary prize “Read, think, write – Dominique Bernard prize” intended for 4th, 3rd and second grade students in Arras and several other municipalities.
In this interview, Isabelle Bernard reveals that her late husband had on several occasions mentioned Mohammed Mogouchkov, born in Russia and registered with S, who would become his assassin. “When he had this boy in class, Dominique told me: I can’t say everything I want, I have to be careful.” However, she refuses to blame National Education and even the police who, the day before, had checked the individual, but had not been able to catch the slightest infraction. “We cannot blame them for this particular act. When Mohammed Mogouchkov was a student in middle school, and Dominique had him in class, the management team did everything to point out the dangerous nature of this boy. Everyone knew it. Everyone did their job.”
“Dominique could be killed”
The widow of Dominique Bernard even assures that she feared that a teacher would be assassinated again, after the death of Samuel Paty, already killed by an Islamist terrorist. “But we can put a police officer behind every teacher […] Fifteen days before his assassination, I had said to a friend: “National education underestimates the risk linked to terrorism, Dominique could very well be killed.” This is what we call tragic irony.”
A ceremony in tribute to the murdered professor will take place this Sunday, October 13 in Arras in the presence of several ministers. On Monday, a minute of silence will be organized in middle and high schools in memory of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard. A time for discussion could be organized at the initiative of teachers.
