No, the decapitated professor was not threatened with sanction, says Blanquer

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer denied on Sunday that the teacher from Yvelines beheaded on Friday was threatened with sanction or remonstrance for showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students, as some speakers suggested on social networks and relayed some media.

"This information is false", hammered the minister, questioned by France Inter, France 2 and

"The main one was impeccable"

Professor of history and geography at the college of Bois d'Aulne in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), Samuel Paty was assassinated and beheaded on Friday on his return to his home by an 18-year-old Chechen Russian, Abdouallakh Anzarov, shot dead immediately after by the police.

Samuel Paty was the target of violent criticism from a father of a student and an Islamist activist known to the police, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who accused him of having shown the caricatures of Muhammad to his 4th year students as part of the 'a course on freedom of expression.

The student's parent and Abdelhakim Sefrioui were arrested and were still in custody on Sunday. 

“Two parents of students protested, so the principal, who was impeccable from start to finish, seeing that there had been an incident of this nature, called the Valeurs de la République teams (the secularity referents of the 'National Education, editor's note) ", recalled Sunday Jean-Michel Blanquer.

The teacher "said that those who are shocked close their eyes or leave the classroom. This point has given rise to a misunderstanding because it could have been experienced as discrimination," he said. 

"The support was effective"

"We can always regret such and such a thing, everything is not perfect (but) the support has been effective," said Jean-Michel Blanquer.

"To be perfectly clear, I will ask the General Inspectorate to establish the entire chain of events," he said.

Friday evening, the deputy of Yvelines Michèle de Vaucouleurs (MoDem) had mentioned in front of the press the "bad idea" of the professor to "ask the Moslem pupils to leave the class".

"He recognized that it was a blunder," she added. 

Since Friday, messages suggesting that the academy was preparing to "sanction" Samuel Paty have swarmed on social networks.

Le Point also relayed a note from territorial intelligence according to which an academic inspector had to remind the teacher of the "rules of secularism and neutrality".