How can teachers reconnect with the class after being betrayed by their students? Is it possible to find the peace and happiness of teaching when this precious relationship of trust is broken?
These questions, which concern all teachers on the planet, particularly gnaw at those at the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the suburbs of Paris. And that’s what they came to say at the Paris children’s court at the end of November, at the opening of the trial of six teenagers – their former students – accused of having played a role in the assassination of the teacher Samuel Paty – their former colleague.
Since this terrorist attack on October 16, 2020, there has been a lot of talk about the motivations of the attacker, the pain of the victim’s family, and the ravages of hatred circulating online. The teachers at Bois d’Aulne college remained quite discreet. They are not so much trying to be heard during this trial which is being held behind closed doors. Instead, they want to hear from their former students.
These five boys and one girl, who were aged between 13 and 15 at the time, arrived at court hiding their faces in their coats, flanked by their parents and lawyers. They are not accused of the murder as such (the assailant was killed during the police operation), but of “criminal association with a view to preparing aggravated violence” (for the five boys) and of “slanderous denunciation » (for the girl).
“We need to understand how they came to designate their teacher as a terrorist,” pleaded the twenty teachers who signed a letter read by their lawyer at the opening of the trial.
“We are here because we need to listen to them, to fill in the blanks of the story, to close the book to mourn,” the professors wrote.
We also need to be here to rebuild trust with students in general, sometimes to reconcile with them, to continue to be teachers when it is still possible.
Extract from a letter signed by around twenty professors from the Bois d’Aulne college
PHOTO THOMAS COEX, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
A poster representing the French teacher Samuel Paty in the streets of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the weeks following his death, in the fall of 2020.
From class to social media
What was going on in the minds of their students? the teachers have been languishing for three years now. Why did they attack their history-geography colleague in this way?
Ten days before the murder, Samuel Paty had discussed the subject of freedom of expression in class. Before showing two caricatures of Mohammed published by Charlie Hebdo, he had offered students who preferred not to watch them to leave the class.
Later, a teenage girl told her father that the teacher had told the Muslim students to report and leave the class before showing the cartoons. In addition to twisting the facts, the teenager, who is among the accused, lied about one important element: she had not attended the course.
Enraged, the father and another Islamist activist (who will have a separate trial) then led a violent campaign on social networks to denounce the professor.
For ten days, the rumor grew, went viral, degenerated into a surge of hatred that spilled far beyond the school. Until October 16, when an 18-year-old man, a radicalized Islamist, arrived from Évreux (80 km from Conflans) to force the teacher to “apologize”.
To identify Samuel Paty, he offered 300 euros to students at the school. Five agreed to keep watch near the college and identify it for him. During the hearings before the trial, they swore, in tears, to have believed that their teacher would at most be “posted on the networks”, perhaps “humiliated”, or “hit”.
The assailant instead stabbed and beheaded Samuel Paty.
PHOTO DMITRY KOSTYUKOV, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
People lay flowers in front of the school where Samuel Paty taught, October 22, 2020.
Broken trust
“They were really very nice students,” one of the teachers testified anonymously to Radio France.1. “We are not at all in profiles of delinquents,” added another.
“Some of our students participated in this attack, it must be said like that, without judging to what extent it was voluntary, the justice system will say it. But this participation strongly contributed to our trauma,” he also explained to the newspaper. The world a teacher who says she felt betrayed. “We taught these students. If trust does not exist, we cannot teach. »
It is in fact a crucial element of the teacher-student relationship that is at issue, notes Mireille Estivalèzes, professor at the faculty of educational sciences at the University of Montreal.
The relationship of trust is built little by little, on mutual respect. This relationship ensures that what happens in the classroom is something privileged. It is not necessarily intended to be found on social networks.
Mireille Estivalèzes, professor at the faculty of educational sciences at the University of Montreal
“But can the classroom be a “sanctuary”? Can it still be a place a little removed from the noise of the world, a space for learning, for discussion? » Is it even possible, she adds, to protect the privacy of the class with these cell phones which can photograph, film, record without everyone knowing?
These questions are very lively among teachers, says Mme Estivalèzes. Whether they are in the suburbs of Paris, at the University of Ottawa or anywhere in the world. And no one has the answer.
Perhaps the Conflans teachers will have some answers to their questions. To their great relief, the Paris court accepted that they attend the trial. One of them said he was convinced that the approach would have “a restorative side”. A colleague added. “We tell ourselves that being together at the trial will help us to grieve, to perhaps feel better, to say to ourselves: I am in my place as a professor. »
The story so far
- Early October 2020
Samuel Paty is targeted by a violent online denunciation campaign according to which he had forced Muslim students to leave his class before showing caricatures of Mohammed. - October 16, 2020
Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was stabbed and decapitated as he left Bois d’Aulne college, in the Paris region. - October 16, 2020
The attacker, an 18-year-old Russian refugee and radicalized Islamist, was killed during the police operation which followed the attack. - November 27, 2023
Start of the trial of six former students of the college, accused of having played a role in this assassination, which is being held in Paris until December 8.