“Is there another tribute today? » It’s 9 o’clock. While the doors of the school have just opened, a schoolgirl questions her friend. At the Gambetta high school in Arras, in Pas-de-Calais, the week that has just passed has escaped routine. Thus, on Friday, a new time of contemplation was organized.
A year ago, on Friday October 13, 2023, Mohammed Mogouchkov, 20, fatally stabbed Dominique Bernard, a 57-year-old French teacher, in front of his former high school. He also attacked other staff members who will be injured.
Three “heroes” refuse to participate
This Sunday, the educational community of the Gambetta-Carnot school group must also commemorate the anniversary of this attack with no less than four ministers. A ceremony which is intended to be intimate, but in which three invited “heroes” refused to participate, according to our information. They had been decorated with the Legion of Honor for trying to subdue the attacker.
How do we recover from such an event? When contacted, the high school management did not wish to comment and the Regional Health Agency, supposed to manage communication on psychological monitoring, did not respond.
In an interview given in January to The Voice of the Northit was a question of a very severe psychological shock suffered by the staff and students, according to François Ducrocq, head of the psychiatric emergency department at Lille University Hospital and referent of the medico-psychological emergency cells (CUMP). It is this latter unit which intervenes in the event of an attack to provide support to victims and witnesses.
Eight hundred psychological treatments
On the day of the attack, “we organized ourselves with CUMP 62 to orchestrate medical-psychological consultations for staff and students,” he explained to the regional daily. “Faced with the human toll and the course of the attack which lasted a few minutes, I expected that we would take care of around fifty people. We had eight hundred. » A consultation system at Arras hospital remained active until June.
Today, the parents’ association evokes, in a press release, “an indelible mark left in our hearts, in our flesh and in our minds”. “The approach of this first anniversary plunges us once again into this tragedy that we want to commemorate with respect for the memory of Mr. Bernard and his family but also in the privacy of those who work and have worked within the school city (children, educational actors, parents, etc.),” she continues.
All week long, high school and college students from Gambetta had the opportunity to pay tribute to the killed teacher. But also to relive the events. “It’s a taboo subject. I hadn’t talked about it in a year. It moves me a little. Thursday, I really didn’t want to come to class,” admits Cléo.
“We avoid talking about it”
A year later, the memory is still in everyone’s minds. Often painful. Some people try not to think about it anymore. “We avoid talking about it,” emphasize Jules and Elouan, two college students who admit that “the commemoration period is very difficult.”
“For a year, we had been trying to forget and now all the memories came flooding back,” says a teenager who wishes to remain anonymous. A friend, in front of him, confirms: “Even in my family, it’s a subject that I never discuss. I have a little brother who hasn’t heard of this story. So, we try to preserve it. »
But nothing can be done, within the circular corridors of the high school, the shadow still looms. “It’s good to pay tribute to Dominique Bernard, even if it’s hard to think about it,” underlines a 1st year high school student, in a group of six teenagers.
“Commemoration helps turn the page”
All were present during the attack. “We try to forget but part of us hasn’t forgotten,” slips one of them. Another said he was “touched, but not that much”. Axel was followed by the psychological unit: “It was to talk, but it was mainly my parents who wanted to. »
Move on. The leitmotif is on many languages. “We must move forward in life”, philosophy Louane who believes that “commemoration helps to turn the page”. “It feels good to remember Dominique Bernard as a teacher. I have only heard good things about him from other teachers and friends,” she adds.
“This terrible ordeal has linked us forever and it is together that we wish to reflect,” said the parents of Gambetta students. The presence of the press, the security services, being confronted again with the noise and tumult of the post-attack weeks… greatly disturb the children who are looking for peace. »