"Some students have closed their eyes" ... They tell the tribute to Samuel Paty

Students from Aragon high school in Muret during the minute of silence in tribute to Samuel Paty, November 2, 2020. -

• This Monday at 11 a.m., the students of France stopped for a minute of silence in homage to Samuel Paty, brutally murdered by a terrorist on October 16 for having shown in class caricatures of Muhammad during a moral education course and civic.

• The students and teacher readers of

  20 Minutes

   tell how they experienced this intense moment.

Silence to leave room for emotion.

This Monday at 11 a.m., the students of France stopped for a minute of silence in homage to Samuel Paty, brutally murdered by a terrorist on October 16 for having shown in class caricatures of Muhammad during a moral education course and civic.

Asked by

, the Ministry of Education indicates that this moment of meditation was generally "well followed, because the students were aware and concerned".

For now, the ministry does not yet have an assessment of the incidents that occurred during the minute of silence, but feedback from the field suggests that they were rare.

An investigation for apologizing for terrorism targeting two college students was however opened in Strasbourg, we learned Tuesday from the prosecution.

Because during the exchanges surrounding this minute of silence, the two teenagers would have made remarks suggesting that they justified the assassination of the professor, confirmed the prosecution.

"Not a word, not a sound"

The contributions that we received after our call for witnesses are the state of the emotion of the students on Monday.

As for Joshua, 6th year student.

“In my college, the principal read Jean Jaurès's letter to the loudspeaker so that the words could be broadcast throughout the school district.

Then she invited us to the minute of silence.

Then, we discussed with the professor of history secularism, tolerance.

The atmosphere was extremely calm.

Not a word, not a sound.

Some students closed their eyes.

Most of the class knew the facts after a discussion with their parents ”.

Lenny, too, was upset: “My teacher warned us directly that he would not read Jean Jaurès' letter, judging it to be out of time.

There followed an hour where we talked about freedom of expression, its fundamental values ​​and the rights and limits it sets.

Once that was done, we proceeded to the minute's silence.

I found it very moving.

This is not enough in the face of the atrocity of the murder of this professor, but it is already that ”.

And although teachers have until the end of November to conduct a class on the values ​​of the Republic, some did not wait, like Virginia, a school teacher.

“We talked about difference and freedom of expression.

The children have understood that we have to explain ourselves when we don't agree and we are all different, so we all have different ideas.

Then we learned the refrain of Grégoire

song 

They realized the role they played in becoming a tolerant and caring adult ”.

For Monica too, it was necessary to include an educational session before the tribute: "School teacher in a CE2 class in a sensitive neighborhood, it was essential that the minute of silence be preceded by an EMC session ( moral and civic education).

I read a text explaining the drama and we defined some unknown words (freedom of expression, secularism, cartoons, terrorism, police investigation, Islamism…).

After the minute of silence which was perfectly respected (with the photo of Samuel Paty in the background), we discussed this event.

It was a highlight for the students and myself: they were worried about the surrounding violence, while strongly defending the right to express oneself freely.

Many were also worried about me, wondering if I was in danger and also to be careful when returning home.

We ended this session by analyzing four press cartoons to discuss the importance of secularism and fraternity and the dangers of the Internet ”.

"Why was this professor killed just for a drawing?"

"

Despite her apprehension about organizing a debate with her CE2 students, Aurélie did so: “I work in Lorraine in a school with many children from immigrant backgrounds.

In the end, this 1.5 hour discussion turned out to be fascinating and very rich.

They were very attentive: no animosity, a lot of interest, but also incomprehension: "why was this professor killed just for a drawing?", They asked ".

Same determination to debate for Lauriane: “I worked on the first two hours with the 3e sur

by Franck Pavloff to bring up the theme of censorship, of its power which would tip a democracy into dictatorship.

They were very receptive ”.

And even if the teachers did not ultimately have an ordinary time of 8 to 10 am Monday to prepare, some have organized themselves upstream via the Web, as recounts Amélie, teacher at Paul Émile Victor college in Vidauban ( Var): “We came dressed in black, and symbolically we went down the stairs together connecting the teachers' room to the playground, each carrying a candle and a portrait of Samuel Paty.

Gauvain Sers' poem has been read.

Then, the first hour was devoted to a dialogue with the students: the facts were recalled, who was Samuel Paty… The second hour was devoted to republican values, to reflections on freedom of expression, education, and our motto with, in particular, the dissemination of the message of the French football team.

At 11 a.m., each class read the letter from Jaurès, who was also murdered for doing his job.

Then, a minute of silence, then the broadcast of selected extracts from the homage to the Sorbonne (reading of Camus' letter).

Then, reading of a poem by Victor Hugo

… And to finish the broadcast of the clip of

 of Abd Al Malik.

The students were respectful and open to dialogue ”.

"We drew doves of peace"

Unsurprisingly, in the lower classes, the homage to Samuel Paty was much shorter, as Thomas tells us: “For my part, I did the minimum.

A student spoke about the minute's silence.

I then relied on what he knew to talk about it again succinctly.

They are too young and too far from that to be concerned ”.

For her part, Delphine adapted the homage to the age of her students: “I told them that it would be a moment of silence to think about the teachers, the adults who help them grow… Then I put

[ the song of U2 used during the homage to the Sorbonne]… I had the tears which rose.

I felt an emotion in two of the students (they are 4 and 5 years old).

We learned songs about being the same despite our differences.

We have drawn doves of peace.

A very moving day in honor of Samuel, a geographically neighboring colleague.

"

But all the students do not seem to have had the same implication, as Aurélien, a physical science teacher testifies: “Although there was no overflow to be deplored, the students did not seem to want to react, few spoke up.

As if this attack was finally too old for them and that it was eclipsed by the new confinement, impression confirmed by listening to the discussions between them in the hallway.

"Naomie, a student, regrets that the tribute was so cold in her establishment:" At 10:59 am, a male voice is heard in the school grounds.

It was the principal, I believe.

He simply reminded us that a history and geography teacher, Samuel Paty, had his head beheaded near his high school, had given a course on freedom of expression, and that we were then going to do the minute's silence for him. pay homage.

There was no real emotion during that short moment, the atmosphere was neutral and I was sending thoughts to Samuel Paty's family.

"Same disappointment with Bryan, 1st year students:" It was very brief: a minute of silence, the letter from Jean Jaurès and it was over.

I am quite disappointed that such a great crime against French values ​​is mentioned so briefly.

I am quite touched by this attack, given that I want to become a history teacher ”.

But, let him be reassured, the tributes to the deceased teacher are far from over ...

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