What really happened last Thursday at the Pierre-Merle school, in the port district of Nice? After several other cases which were not called into question, the town hall alerted: three new CE2 students were allegedly caught praying in the courtyard of their establishment. The rector herself confirmed these “reports”. Parents, however, assure in the columns of Nice morning that it was just a game and blame the municipality, which summoned them, for not having reestablished “the truth”.
Requested by 20 minutes This Monday, the rectorate of the Nice academy nevertheless explains that the facts reported are “clear” with “kneeling children”. The rector “once again recalls the 2004 law on secularism” which provides that, “in schools […]the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly demonstrate religious affiliation is prohibited,” supports a spokesperson.
A prayer or a “scare game”?
So what is it? According to information from 20 minutes, the three children in question, aged 8, would have been surprised in the yard, kneeling on their sweaters, raising and lowering their arms. An unequivocal situation according to several sources. Was it a real prayer? A staging involving mimicry? Or a “game to scare yourself”, as two parents of students finally explained to Nice morning ? Schoolchildren are said to have “made a circle invoking the white lady” at the sight of a bag reminding them of a ghostly shape.
In any case, it was in no way a religious gesture, according to them. And for the grandfather of one of the little ones who “is doing well, even if it is fragile”, this situation has “hurt them, a lot of harm”. “We are lucky to be a Catholic family that stands on its feet,” he explains. What if the same injustice had happened to a Muslim family? I keep thinking about it. »
“Incentives which are increasingly manifested on social networks”
He criticizes the town hall for having communicated, for not having given the correct version of the facts and for not having reestablished “the truth”. In a press release sent on Friday after the parents’ summons, the municipality explained “that the family units have demonstrated no desire to violate the principles of secularism and the Republic”. Without however denying the substance, in a text always having as its subject “prayers in schools”.
No denial either from the rectorate, which again insisted this Monday that the reports reported were “clear”. But what if it was just fun, as parents report? For the rector, this type of staging “should not be a game”, reports a spokesperson, before specifying: “Or we consider that they are small and that it is not very serious. Or, on the contrary, we consider that they are small and that it is very serious. » The Nice academy and the city are sticking to the second option. “Our duty is to remain particularly vigilant in the face of incitements to violate secularism, which are increasingly manifested on social networks,” indicates the town hall in its press release.