A fine of 600 years. This is the sentence handed down Monday against the author of the death threats against the principal of the Parisian high school Maurice-Ravel after an altercation with a student refusing to remove her Islamic veil. The Paris criminal court also sentenced him to complete a five-day citizenship course and to pay 3,000 euros in damages to the principal.
“The sanction which is pronounced is clearly a blow to National Education,” reacted Tuesday the Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, on CNews/Europe 1. “I cannot, obviously, tell you hear it, have a point of view on this court decision. But on the other hand, I say, it is a blow to National Education,” she insisted, recalling that this conviction comes at a time when the trial of eight people implicated in the assassination is taking place. by Samuel Paty.
Asked after leaving the courtroom about his state of mind, the former principal of the Maurice Ravel high school admitted to being shaken. “Each trial brings everything back to the table, it’s not easy.” “This is a stunning judgment which trivializes hate speech against heads of establishments threatened with death in the exercise of their duties,” reacted in a press release Me Francis Lec, his lawyer, who hopes that the prosecution will appeal.
The Ravel high school affair dates back to February 28. The principal had an altercation with an adult student whom he asked to remove her veil within the school grounds. The next day, several death threats were published online, including that of AA, the 27-year-old young man tried in Paris, who wrote on his X account: “This is crazy. You have to burn him alive, this dog.”
Change the law
“Every time a teacher is threatened, a school head is threatened, it is the Republic that falters. I do not accept it,” insisted Anne Genetet, adding that “my role is to act, to be able to give our teachers, our school leaders the essential protection.”
The minister assured that “as soon as there is a threat, functional protection is implemented, but not only that”. “Whenever it is necessary, police protection is implemented,” she insisted. And when, in an establishment, there are “immediate security issues”, there are “mobile security teams” which can intervene “to restore order in an establishment”, she continued.
VideoAt the Maurice-Ravel high school after the departure of the threatened principal: “It’s a weird atmosphere”
Anne Genetet also announced that she was working, alongside the Minister of the Civil Service Guillaume Kasbarian, “to be able to modify and evolve the law so that, finally, the institution can also file a complaint alongside its agents” since , until now, a ministry cannot do this.
She also said she was considering the deployment of “mediators” in schools to support principals “in the management of their students, particularly attendance, absences and behavior”.
