Students at the Maurice-Ravel school campus, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, are starting to get used to the presence of cameras and journalists in front of the gates of their establishment. This Thursday morning, despite the presence of six police officers at the school entrance, they all arrive, bags on their backs, as if nothing had happened.
However, the day before, their former principal who resigned after receiving death threats on the Internet following an altercation with a student about her veil was received by Gabriel Attal. A little later in the evening, the Prime Minister announced that a complaint would be filed on behalf of the State against the BTS student for “slanderous denunciation”.
Not a topic of discussion for students
“It’s not really a topic. Apart from the day after the announcement on Pronote of the principal’s resignation, we don’t talk about it among ourselves,” explains Théo, 15, sitting on the sidewalk. Like him, all the students agree that the subject is not at the heart of discussions in the schoolyard.
“Frankly, apart from the presence of the media, it doesn’t change much for us. We know the principal by sight but he is not really in contact with us every day,” adds Marc-Aurèle, also in second grade. With the exception of “a few discussion sessions” with certain teachers, the story remains rather anecdotal for his friend Lucas.
“Just the story of a teacher who yelled at a student”
The students nevertheless note the police presence in front of the establishment and that of three security personnel who make rounds inside. Symbols of the “runaway” of the affair according to many of them.
“There is a real difference between the calm inside, and what we hear in the media and on social networks,” says Anaïs, a first grade student. With his friend Marius, they regret “the magnitude of an affair which is not one”. “It’s just the story of a teacher who yelled at a student, it shouldn’t go beyond that,” he explains.
Many of the students want to bring this story “back down” this morning in front of the school. Firstly because if the versions differ, everyone agrees that the facts have been “inflated”. “At first, we all heard that the principal had slapped her [l’élève qui refusait de retirer son voile]. But as the discussions progressed, we understood that that was not what had happened,” explains Lucas, a second grade student.
Various manipulations of facts
“Did he touch her arm and she misunderstood or took it the wrong way? Perhaps he was more violent in tone than in gestures? We don’t know how she experienced it, says Zoya, but he knows that there are many witnesses so if he files a complaint saying that she lied, it is because he must know that he is innocent. »
“The problem is that it has been taken up by far-right media and people like Pascal Praud are talking nonsense and blowing things up,” accuses Marius, “the situation is regrettable, but it is not a reason to make tons of it, because then it reaches the ears of crazy people and it ends like that, with serious threats. »
Picked up by the media, the affair would also be fueled from within by students looking for sensations… or vacations according to Killian, a first grade student. “There are some who have fun saying anything on social networks, just for fun. It’s fun for them. But there are also some who do this hoping that there will be a blockage and that we can be excused from classes. »
It “causes a lot of pain” for the principal
These same students must then rejoice at the announcement of a State complaint against the student, which Yasmine personally regrets: “It’s excessive, we don’t know how the student experienced the situation. Maybe it’s not that serious, but we should take the time to talk to her and the principal first, right? » Asked, the student still recognizes that with the previous problems linked to secularism in schools, certain safeguards must be put in place.
She, like many others, especially regrets the situation of the principal, “forced” to leave his duties for his own safety. A withdrawal “which causes a lot of pain”, but “logical” according to Marius. For Lise, “it wasn’t up to him to leave, he just did his job, he didn’t have to receive death threats for having done that”.
Just as sad, Killian would like the story to drop and talk more about “the dilapidated rooms and the state of the school” rather than a simple high school hallway story.