Schools across the country observed a minute of silence this Monday, October 16, for the teacher stabbed to death last week. An event described by President Emmanuel Macron as an act of “Islamist terror.” Hours earlier, Macron called for a “ruthless” government response to those in France with terrorist ideologies.
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The nationwide tribute comes a day after thousands of people gathered in Arras, northeastern France, to pay their respects to Professor Dominique Bernard, 57.
His murder, which occurred on Friday, October 13, shocked the entire country and sparked calls to strengthen security in schools. The Government declared maximum alert and deployed 7,000 soldiers.
The attack in Arras, home to large Jewish and Muslim populations, came amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas group, which controls the Gaza Strip.
The alleged perpetrator, a 20-year-old Russian, has been arrested for the murder and for having seriously injured three other people at the school he used to attend.
“Arras is being tested, but Arras is standing (…) We are standing,” Mayor Frédéric Leturque told a crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered in the central square on Sunday.
One of the injured who was hospitalized for serious injuries “seems to be better,” a source close to the matter told AFP.
Meanwhile, the French president advocated this Monday for a “ruthless” government response towards those with terrorist ideologies.
The president asked the Police to review their files on radicals who could be deported from France and asked the Minister of the Interior to adopt “a special approach towards young people between 16 and 25 years old in the Caucasus.”
For you, professors, chefs d’établissement, personnels de l’Éducation nationale et des collectivités territoriales,
To you elèves de France,
Ce matin, Dominique Bernard aurait dû retrouver la cité scolaire Gambetta d’Arras. Exercer le beau métier…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 16, 2023
“The terrorists know that there can be no Republic without schools, without patient learning of critical thinking and the values of freedom, equality, fraternity and secularism that forge citizens in their classrooms (…) The Government has acted, we are acting and we will continue to act to ensure that our schools remain a sanctuary for our students and for all those who work there,” Macron published through his account on the X platform.
The attack occurred almost three years after the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020, near his school in a Paris suburb. His killer, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, claimed it was revenge because Paty showed students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression.
“It is unbearable to have to relive the same fear,” said Catherine Piecuch of the FSU education union. “The state must take all measures to guarantee the protection of staff and students,” she added.
Monday’s minute of silence in French schools took place at 2:00 p.m. local time.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster ‘TF1’ on Sunday that local authorities will meet next week to discuss safety in schools. He suggested they should “go further” by providing security guards and video surveillance.
‘Traumatized’
Clotilde Mienville, a teacher from Arras, said she did not know how she would approach the topic with her students.
Some of them were “shocked, traumatized,” he said, as they had older siblings at the affected school. “You have to give them the opportunity to express themselves,” she added.
Nine people remained detained Sunday, including alleged perpetrator Mohammed Moguchkov, who was born in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia. According to a police source, the attacker arrived in France when he was five years old.
A police source assured that since his arrest he had not explained what happened.
Moguchkov was already on the French national register as a possible security threat and was being monitored by the national intelligence agency DGSI, due to his links to his father, who was deported in 2018, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
A day before the attack, the DGSI had briefly questioned him, Darmanin said Saturday, ruling out “a violation of the intelligence services.”
Darmanin has called for the “systemic expulsion of all foreigners considered dangerous by the intelligence services”, in reference to a growing “atmosphere of jihadism” since the unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
This article was adapted from its original English version
With AFP
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