What we know about the attack on a teacher in Tourcoing by an 18-year-old student

The events took place on Monday at the Sévigné high school. After her custody, the teenager, unknown to the police and the courts, was to be tried immediately on Wednesday afternoon. His trial was postponed until December 11.

She was to be judged on Wednesday afternoon. The trial of an 18-year-old student from the Sévigné high school in Tourcoing (North), suspected of having slapped a teacher who asked her to remove her veil, was postponed until December 11, reports France Bleu Nord. Here is what we know, at this stage, about this affair.

An altercation within the premises of the establishment

The events took place on Monday around 4:30 p.m. at the Sévigné high school, when the student had just put on her veil when leaving the establishment. According to the first investigations, the teacher in technical medico-social sciences asked the young girl “to remove one’s religious veil, before being subjected to insulting remarks”declared the Lille prosecutor’s office to AFP. “The student insulted the teacher while continuing on his way to the exit”for its part specified the rectorate, as reported by France 3 Hauts-de-France.

The teacher then “opposed to his leaving the establishment in order to obtain his identity” and the student then carried “a slap to the teacher, who returned it”. “Several blows, threats and shoving followed”added prosecutor Carole Etienne. The student then fled, before being arrested at her home at the end of the day and placed in police custody. According to Jean-François Carémel, academic secretary of the Snes-FSU Lille union, the teacher then filed a complaint.

The student tried in immediate appearance on Wednesday

An investigation was opened and the student, unknown to the police and the courts, was placed in police custody until Wednesday. She was to be tried immediately in the afternoon at the Lille judicial court, but her trial was postponed until December 11. As reported on X by an M6 journalist present at the hearing, the young girl apologized in court. L’The teacher’s lawyer, for his part, clarified that the latter, absent, was marked on the face and legs and “deeply shocked”.

Academically, “a precautionary measure has already been taken against the student to prohibit him from accessing the establishment until his disciplinary council meets”, assured from the National Assembly the Minister of Education, Anne Genetet, specifying that she had spoken with the teacher and the principal. “I asked that very firm disciplinary sanctions be imposed given the seriousness of the facts”she added, specifying that a “mobile security team” had been deployed on site Tuesday morning by the rectorate.

Classes suspended until Thursday and a crisis unit open

Tuesday morning, the high school teachers met following this event, France Bleu Nord learned from the educational team. The principal of the establishment decided to cancel classes and a crisis unit was opened with the teaching team and the rectorate.

Classes are not offered on Wednesday and will only resume on Thursday. The rectorate specifies that a “time for discussion and work is carried out by the teams” of the establishment. Students who arrive at the high school during the day will still be welcomed. Some were shocked, as they explained to France Télévisions, describing a teacher “super nice, attentive. We’ve never had a problem with her, she’s always there to help us”.

Others wonder, like Leïla, a final year student who did not witness the facts: “Why such violence over a simple veil? The teacher could very well have asked the young girl very calmly to remove her veil”told AFP the student, who withdraws his from high school.

Snes-FSU Lille said “in solidarity with all the staff at the Sévigné high school faced with difficult working conditions”. But as Jean-François Carémel declared to France Bleu Nord, there is no particular tension around questions of secularism in this educational establishment.

The political class immediately took up the matter

The attack was invited to the National Assembly on Tuesday, through the voice of the deputy for Tourcoing and former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The teacher “was verbally and then physically attacked, without possible dispute since the high school video” allowed the police “to not only take the complaint, but to qualify the facts”he said during questions to the government. When questioned, the Minister of National Education replied that it was “of an act which defies our secular school, of an act which defies the Republic”.

“To threaten a professor is to threaten the Republic. To strike a professor is to strike the Republic.”

Anne Genetet, Minister of National Education

in the National Assembly

“In all our establishments, the 2004 law must apply, the entire 2004 law” prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols at school, reacted the Minister Delegate in charge of Academic Success, Alexandre Portier. “The time is no longer for errors, for hesitations, but for a clear, firm and assumed line”he added. For the president of the Hauts-de-France Region, Xavier Bertrand, “secularism is one of the pillars of the school of the Republic, it cannot be negotiated”.