EShe hesitated for a long time but finally decided to speak. Under condition of anonymity. The teacher at the Jean-Monnet high school in Libourne, who received a new death threat letter under the threshold of her classroom on Tuesday, November 12, says. “It was 1 p.m. I was going back to class. My students were waiting outside the room. When I put the key in the lock, I looked down and that's when I saw the note. » This time, no racist remarks. Just three laconic words: “To death…”, followed by his last name.
This is the third missive, after a first discovery in December 2023 and a second in September of this year. “I have problems sleeping, I'm afraid to leave the house alone. Even when I come to work, I have gotten into the habit of looking everywhere. I have come to distrust my students. I'm developing a sort of paranoia. » His hands tremble but his will to be there remains, until now, unshakeable. “I keep coming because I don't want to abandon my students who haven't asked for anything. » So she goes back, despite the anxiety. “There, the third letter, it becomes complicated,” she confides.
“I don’t argue with students, I rarely stick together, I don’t shout, I speak calmly and I am quite respected”
A caring teacher
In her eighteen years of teaching, this is the first time she has faced such a situation. No matter how much she wonders who, why, no answer or suspicion comes. “Maybe he's a joker who doesn't want to have class or because of a bad grade. Otherwise, I don't see. I don't argue with students, I rarely stick together, I don't shout, I speak calmly and I am quite respected. I am very empathetic towards them, I take into account their family or other difficulties. I am a caring teacher who loves her job. » A teacher invested well beyond her mission, who never hesitated to take her car to take a student to an exam. She also receives a lot of messages and support from high school students. A way for her to hold on, even if her anxiety continues to grow with each new discovery.
An anxiety reinforced by a more global context: that of the trial for the assassination of Samuel Paty which opened Monday, November 4 before the assize court specially composed at the Paris courthouse. “He too had received death threat letters. There was also the death of a teacher in Saint-Jean-de-Luz [en février 2023, NDLR] and a teacher attacked in Tours [en juin 2024 par un élève cagoulé et armé d’un extincteur] but as he is not dead, we have heard less about him…” A disastrous list of news items that the professor draws up, like a reminder.
“Dead high school” day
Like her colleagues, she is asking for a greater and longer presence of the rectorate's mobile security team, more supervisors and a camera in front of her class. A decision necessarily internal to the high school which will have to go to the board of directors. “At least I will no longer have the anxiety of discovering a letter under my door. » A solution but not the panacea because, let us remember, the first letter discovered in December 2023, particularly violent and abject – “The Arabs in high school, we must kill them. I'm going to bleed them like my grandfather's pigs…” – had been found while she was in class, by students, in the high school, in a place where she often passed. It is impossible to know if all these writings come from the same person. An investigation is underway and, this time, precautions have been taken not to multiply the prints on the piece of paper.
“There is real discomfort. We feel totally abandoned”
This Thursday, November 14, the vast majority of teachers decided on a “dead high school” day, in support of their colleague but also to express a strong feeling of loneliness. “There is real discomfort. We feel totally abandoned. Not through our direct hierarchy because the principal and her team are very present, but above, the inspectors are non-existent,” believe several of them. They keep the memory of the days of salary they had less last year after having used their right of withdrawal. “In which sector do you get death threats at work? » asks a professor. “Our mobilization is also a way of showing that we are fighting against racism. We have days around school bullying, we should do one on racism,” suggests a colleague. Complaints that they were able to make directly to Jérôme Paillette, deputy academic director who came on site this Thursday morning. A complaint was also filed.
