Four months after a first “alert” from Christian Estrosi on “Muslim prayers” organized “by CM1 and CM2 children” in schools in Nice, similar facts concerned two CE2 students on Monday.
Their parents were summoned by the municipality and the rectorate. The latter denounce new “attacks on secularism”, against which the town hall has just launched a new “action plan”.
What happened ?
Monday evening, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi and the rector of the academy Natacha Chicot explained in a press release that they had “been informed that two CE2 children had organized a prayer on the grounds of their school”. In this case that of Saint-Sylvestre, to the north of the city.
The facts took place “during lunchtime after-school time”, at canteen time, in the courtyard of the establishment, specifies the municipality at 20 minutes. The two children, aged 8, were at that time under the responsibility of town hall agents. They were the ones who raised the alarm.
A double invitation from parents
“Christian Estrosi asked his deputy delegate for education, Jean-Luc Gagliolo, and Natacha Chicot to the school director, to summon and receive without delay the parents of the students concerned to recall the fundamental principles of secularism” , explained the town hall and the academy on Monday. The chosen one met them in the evening.
Then, another interview took place this Tuesday morning with the director of the establishment and the district inspector, indicates the rectorate. “And the parents understood that this behavior was problematic,” according to a source close to the matter. “They explained to us that their children were not raised ‘like that’,” Jean-Luc Gagliolo also explained in the columns of Nice morning.
What were the reactions?
As of Monday, Christian Estrosi and Natacha Chicot denounced a new “attack on secularism” after similar events that occurred at the end of last spring. They then concerned “three schools” and children aged 8 and 9, from CM1 and CM2 classes. Prayers had been organized “by around ten students” in the first establishment, by three of them in the second and, in the third, only one child had been “at the initiative of a minute of silence in indeed organized in homage to the prophet,” detailed the rector. Saint-Sylvestre school was already concerned.
“The principle of secularism is a principle of the Republic which cannot in any way be contested,” responded Christian Estrosi and Natacha Chicot on Monday in a joint press release. It is imposed on everyone, in all our public schools, both during class time and extracurricular time. We won’t let anything go. Our secular Republic that we defend and in which we believe is our collective foundation. »
In June, in another statement with the mayor of Nice, the Minister of Education at the time, Pap Ndiaye, considered that these “very serious attacks on the principle of secularism” were “intolerable” and must “be addressed object of a firm, collective and resolute response”.
A new “secularism plan” launched particularly in schools
Coincidentally, the Nice municipal council adopted a new “action plan to combat attacks on secularism” last week. It applies in several areas, including school. In particular, it plans to “establish a common procedure for reporting attacks on secularism in community services or when carrying out a public service mission, particularly in educational establishments”.
The implementation of “measures for the youth of Nice” is also on the agenda “by strengthening the activities offered to students on meridian time by speakers” under the coordination of a “secularism referent”. The municipality will also “propose to National Education the creation and publication of a secularism booklet for students in Nice schools”.