“The shock is twofold”, reacts this Friday Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, general secretary of the Teachers Union-UNSA (SE-UNSA) after the knife attack at Gambetta high school‘Arras, in the morning. A teacher died and two other people were seriously injured. No students were affected.
The perpetrator of the attack, arrested, is a young man in his twenties, of Chechen origin, on file for radicalization (S file), says a police source. According to initial evidence, he shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack.
This new terrorist attack affecting the educational community occurs three years almost to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty. On October 16, 2020, this history and geography professor was killed near his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) by a Russian refugee of Chechen origin, who accused him of having shown in class, during a course on freedom of expression, caricatures of Mohammed to his students. The death of the 47-year-old teacher, stabbed and then decapitated, had aroused considerable emotion, which is rekindled by this new attack in Arras. Elisabeth Allain-Moreno responds to 20 minutes.
What wounds does this new attack targeting the educational community reopen?
The shock is twofold. We were preparing to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of Samuel Paty, a painful event still on our minds. Despite everything, work had been done since his assassination to try to overcome this terrorist attack, to unite the educational community to be stronger… This is all that this new attack in Arras has brought to the ground. We are not done with terrorism at school. It’s today and maybe it will be tomorrow.
Do you have the impression that educational establishments are as exposed and vulnerable to terrorist attacks as they were three years ago?
That’s why I’m talking about a double shock. Not only does what happened this morning in Arras revive the assassination of Samuel Paty but shows that these terrorist attacks can occur in any educational establishment. I was able to speak with teachers from Gambetta high school this morning. They described to me a quiet establishment in the city center of Arras, which had not experienced any particular difficulties until then in enforcing the principle of secularism. As for the author of the attack, according to the people I was able to contact this morning, it was a former student of the establishment whom the educational community did not remember. was violent and at odds with the school’s values. Today, we have educational staff who are afraid, because they feel in potential danger every day. Zero risk does not exist for any educational establishment today in France.
According to initial testimonies, the attacker seemed to want to primarily attack a history teacher… Why do they seem more exposed than the others?
History-geography teachers generally address moral and civic teaching more than others. Their programs lead them to talk about religion, the separation of Church and State, religious wars… Obviously, their teachings are likely to offend religious fundamentalists.
Then, we will of course have to wait for the investigation to progress to find out the exact motivations of the attacker. But it is difficult not to make the link with the assassination of Samuel Paty, just three years ago. It’s terrible, but by seeking to attack a history-geography professor again, the terrorist was perhaps seeking to mark this assassination in his own way, to spoil all future commemorations.
What do you expect from the government today?
That Emmanuel Macron was traveling to Arras today seemed important to us. Now, we expect from him a strong message of unity, which reaffirms our values and reassures the entire educational community, but also families and students. In the coming hours and days, it will also be necessary to set up listening cells and psychological cells wherever necessary. However, there is a severe shortage of school life staff, psychologists and health staff in our educational establishments today. The government will have to hear this and do what is necessary so that everyone who feels the need to speak out about this tragedy can do so.