The sirens sounded three times this Sunday at 11 a.m. in Arras as a huge crowd came to pay tribute to Dominique Bernard, a French teacher stabbed to death Friday at the city’s Gambetta college. A gathering which was held on the Place des Heroes, the central square of the city, not far from the school campus where the attack took place, a knife attack committed by an assailant registered as S of Russian nationality and who also injured three people.
Serious faces, elected officials, teachers, families, those close to the teacher, supported each other, with a lot of seriousness which barely hid their emotion and tears. The crowd listened with emotion to the speeches. Catherine Piecuchdes Co Secretary FSU du Nord Pas de Calais, on behalf of the inter-union, testified, with sobs in her voice, of her “lively and intense” anger and recalled that the State must take all necessary measures to protect students , the teaching world.
The Marseillaise sung by the crowd
Then the mayor (DC) of Arras, Frédéric Leturque, after recalling “that there were no words for this barbaric act”, insisted that the city, its inhabitants, were “standing up”. “Gathered, united, standing,” the mayor stressed several times, adding with emotion “that on the eve of the anniversary of the death of Samuel Paty, Dominique is making history,”
Then a minute of silence was observed before the Marseillaise was sung by a compact crowd, with serious faces, red eyes for some or hidden behind dark glasses for others. Dark glasses that had nothing to do with the sun which also wanted to participate in this moving tribute.
At noon, the city bells will ring, concluded the elected official, “to prolong this moment of union”, while a minute of silence will be observed on Monday at 2 p.m. in all schools in France. In the meantime, roses have been placed at the foot of a commemorative plaque in the city of Arras. A plaque inaugurated several years ago for victims of terrorism.