Arras: nothing will ever be the same again at the Lycée Gambetta, in front of which the whole city comes to pay its respects

Maximilien Carlier, edited by Philippe Folgado / Photo credits: Denis Charlet / AFP 06:47, October 15, 2023

Two days after the events that took place in the Gambetta high school in Arras, a rally was organized to pay tribute to Dominique Bernard, the literature teacher stabbed to death by a 20-year-old man, listed as S. Events that will change the history of this establishment as well as its image.

"They take away a part of the dream from all these children and teenagers"

The classes, the friends and the first flirtations, that's what Gambetta was all about, explain Maëva and Lena, both in their twenties. These two former students did a large part of their schooling at this school. "The Lycée Gambetta has seen us grow up. We came here, we were babies, we came out of there as young women. We really have a memory of the establishment which is magnificent and now it is tarnished because of a sick person," they whisper.

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Mr. Bernard died a hero while doing the best job in the world. A few metres away, Rudy and Livia return to Gambetta, 20 years after leaving it: "It's not easy, it's symbolic. We met here. We just tell ourselves that in our time, we wouldn't have experienced these things. Maybe we were more carefree. In misfortune, all these people, they take away a part of the dream from all these children, these teenagers who are living their high school years."

"It's traumatic, it's dramatic," they conclude. One question comes up every time, how can this happen in such a quiet city where life is good?