heads of educational establishments gathered in Paris to warn of the threats they are facing

They want to warn of the threats that some of them are experiencing: heads of educational establishments gathered on Monday, March 4, in front of the Sorbonne in Paris to testify about their daily lives. The trigger was the incident on Wednesday February 28 at the Ravel high school: a principal threatened with death after reminding students of the obligation to remove their veils. According to these principals and principals, altercations of this type are far from exceptional.

A climate of tension like this, this middle school principal in eastern Paris had not experienced it during her career: “Never !” Carole Laurent-Patrice observes with some concern the recurrence of recent incidents: “We realize that our job is becoming more and more complicated, more and more difficult, and sometimes we need a minimum of recognition. For us, it’s abnormal to have to go to work with fear in our stomach. This is not normal for any profession, let alone ours.”

“It is the question of secularism that is under attack”

There were 160 middle school principals, high school principals and assistants participating in this support rally. This is almost half of Parisian management personnel. We must be united, confirms Nicolas Bray, representative of the SNPDEN union in Paris: “There are regularly colleagues who are threatened in the context of their duties and we provide our support to all through this movement. It is the question of secularism which is attacked. There are more recent attacks than the ‘it can be observed.”

“It’s not a question of more or fewer rules, insists the representative. It’s a matter of working collectively to ensure that the rules are accepted.” Last year, reports of serious incidents in schools, mainly verbal and physical violence, increased slightly compared to the previous year.