“It’s obvious that the teachers are afraid”

One year to the day after the assassination of Dominique Bernard, the professor killed in his establishment in Arras, 2,000 people gathered this Sunday in the north. New tribute this Monday, on a national scale this time in middle and high schools across the country. A minute of silence will be respected to pay tribute to the memory of Dominique Bernard, but also of Samuel Paty, two teachers killed in terrorist assassinations.

A minute of silence observed this Monday in all middle and high schools in France. A moment of tribute to professors Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, assassinated respectively on October 16, 2020 and October 13, 2023 by radicalized young Islamists.

A minute of silence, followed, if the teachers wish, by a time for discussion. Last year, 357 incidents were recorded during these tributes in 10,700 establishments. And that creates some worry among teachers. Particularly in establishments where teachers feel isolated.

“We have not received any instructions from our establishment. I am extremely disappointed,” regrets Bénédicte, a Spanish teacher in Paris. She will organize a small debate in her class, but would have liked to have the support of her management.

“It is obvious that the teachers are afraid. We know very well that there are reports of attacks on secularism,” she laments.

Conversely, in the college run by François Marceau in Saint-Etienne, a text was written together to introduce the minute of silence, then a class time is organized, at the choice of the teachers. “I would like to point out that if they do not feel comfortable, they can ask us for help in advance so that we can support them so that there can possibly be two of them by bringing in school life staff for example” , explains François Marceau.

Debates rather than minutes of silence?

Other establishments have also considered the reactions to be had in the event of incidents, such as in Lille, in the high school where Catherine Bodet teaches.

“What our head of school tells us is: ‘there may be negative reactions, don’t say anything at the time, it’s simply afterwards that you can talk about it with the student’. That is to say that we are not going to stir up discussions during the moment that could lead to irritation in class,” she explains.

And to close this tribute, the teacher then plans to open the class debate on freedom of expression.

All students in France will not do it at the same time, because each establishment can choose the time of its minute of silence. Rare are those that bring all the students together in the courtyard, most prefer that each student stands in their class, facing a teacher. “Less risk of some people being smart,” confides a school head.

“We will first take 5 minutes to explain to them, because the 6th graders were only 7 years old when Samuel Paty was assassinated,” he adds. Then some will read a text, others will broadcast a song and then finally, a minute of silence. But not everywhere. “Secularism does not need silence, it needs pedagogy” denounces a professor who opted for two hours of discussion on freedom of expression and secularism. “A minute of silence is useless,” adds another teacher. Nothing, except having to “count the number of students who are going to disrupt it” regrets a head of school.