A teacher at the Jean-Victor Poncelet comprehensive high school in Saint-Avold (Moselle) filed a complaint after being threatened with death by the father of a student, we learned on Wednesday from a police source and from the rectorate.
“After taking a student back because of his behavior and his lack of work in class, a teacher was threatened by the father of this student,” Nancy Metz rectorate told AFP. “The student concerned is experiencing relational difficulties with his teachers, and demonstrates inappropriate behavior in class. His father did not accept the admonitions addressed to his child and overreacted, which led to threatening remarks against the teacher,” continues the rectorate.
This underlines that the threats “were made in circumstances not relating to an issue of secularism”.
According to a police source, the student's father initially questioned the legitimacy of the teacher by sending a threatening email to the high school principal. Redirected to the establishment's Principal Education Advisor (CPE), the father declared: “I'm going to catch him and break his head. With teachers like that, it should come as no surprise that there are Samuel Patys! “.
Samuel Paty, history and geography teacher in a high school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), was killed in October 2020 by a radicalized young man, after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. The attacker was shot dead but eight people suspected of complicity are currently on trial at the Paris courthouse until December 20.
Neither the rectorate nor the establishment specified what subject the Saint-Avold teacher taught, nor in what class the undisciplined student was. “Following this incident, the facts were immediately reported to the prosecutor by the establishment. The teacher, who filed a complaint, benefits from support as part of his request for functional protection. The situation is being carefully monitored by the rectorate which provides all its support to this teacher and the teaching team,” continues the rectorate.
The Poncelet high school welcomes 1,500 students and does not seem to experience any particular difficulties.
