On October 16, 2020, Professor Samuel Paty was assassinated outside his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by a terrorist of Chechen origin. This Monday begins the trial of the five minors who named him in exchange for money to his executioner, and of the teenager at the origin of the outburst. A trial, awaited by the family and the teachers, which is held behind closed doors.
They were between 13 and 15 years old. All were students at the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) at the time of the assassination of history and geography professor Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020.
Starting this Monday, six teenagers will appear, behind closed doors, before the Paris juvenile court. Five of them are on trial for conspiracy to commit aggravated violence. They are accused of having monitored the surroundings of the college and of having designated the teacher to the attacker for remuneration. The sixth, a teenager, is on trial for slanderous denunciation. She said that during a lesson, Samuel Paty had asked Muslim students to leave the class before showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. A lie at the origin of the cabal against Samuel Paty, of the infernal machine which led to the death of the teacher.
“Their everyone’s role is predominant in this mattersays Virginie Le Roy, the lawyer who represents the family of Samuel Paty. First there is the one who makes this lie. And then there are those who designated their teacher and there are several of them: the one who was paid and who redistributed, the one who was on lookout… Why did they do that? Why is there not this startle of saying to oneself there is something abnormal in a man dressed all in black coming to ask, in exchange for money, to appoint the professor for the punish, to display it on the networks? Why didn’t they say to themselves: I warn an adult, a teacher or I just move on?”
So many questions that also haunt the colleagues of the murdered teacher. Traumatized, some left college, others decided to change careers. For those who stayed and whom we met, incomprehension and astonishment still prevail, three years after the tragedy.
“This trial is the way to understand why our students got to this point. We need to hear from our students on this to allow us to move forward.”, confides one of these professors who wished to remain anonymous. He will file a civil suit with around ten other colleagues, in particular to hear the explanations of these students of whom he was the teacher. Because after their placement in police custody, none of them returned to Bois d’Aulne. No discussion was therefore possible.
“We need to know what happened in their heads, what led them to participate in this act because if we cannot understand the logic, we will be left with this idea that ultimately, all students could turn against us. That what they did, any student could do.” explains this other teacher who says she experienced painfully “after the attack” despite the support of the French terrorism association (AFVT), despite the workshops and discussion spaces set up in the college, despite also consultations with a psychologist. “Already, there was simply fear. The fear of returning to work in this place. Then there is post-traumatic stress with sudden mood swings. What the victims of attacks can feel, we felt it.”
For these teachers, the relationship with students has changed since that disastrous October 16, 2020, trust has been “damaged.” There are words that we weigh before using them, for fear that they will be misinterpreted; the attitudes that we observe, now with suspicion. A fear revived by the assassination of Professor Dominique Bernard in Arras on October 13.
There are also statements that hurt. Like the remarks made by Samuel Paty’s sister during her hearing before the Senate commission of inquiry on October 17. That day, Mickaëlle Paty accused her brother’s colleagues of having been “complicit spectators who invented a post-attack conscience”continuing to “prolong the slander after the assassination of his brother”. She also blames them for not having protected him when he was in danger.
Difficult for these teachers to hear. “Many of us supported him, took him home, sent him messages, signs of support. Yes, there are teachers who have distanced themselves from each other but it’s really a minority”says one of them. “It hurts because I am one of the colleagues who took Samuel home in the week before the act (…) It’s true that I was not alarmist either. I try to watch the film again and say to myself: would it have been different if I had done that? The feeling of guilt is present.”
None of them will be heard during the trial which is scheduled to last until December 8, and which they hope to attend. “This is our place”, they assure.
The eight adults implicated in this case will be tried in another trial in November 2024.