Terrorist threats in France: National Education announces the creation of a mobile school force
The French Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet, announced the creation of a national “
mobile school force
” which could be sent to establishments in the event of “
difficulties
” in terms of security. The day before, she had preferred to suspend all messaging from ENT middle and high schools. These are the messaging services that have been used to spread threats against dozens of high schools over the past week.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (right) and French Minister of National Education and Youth Nicole Belloubet (left), during a visit to the Mathurin Régnier college in Chartres, this Thursday March 14, 2024. AFP - GUILLAUME SOUVANT
By: RFI with AFP
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Traveling this Friday March 29 to a vocational high school in Bordeaux, targeted by “threats”, the minister announced the creation of a national “mobile school force”. According to information collected by AFP, this force would be “made up of around twenty National Education agents”, would be “set up at the start of the 2024 school year”. It “
will have a mission of security inside the establishment, calming and education
”.
I will deploy a mobile school force which will be national and which can be deployed in establishments which are experiencing difficulties. This school strength [...] is intended to reassure teachers and educational teams. This is absolutely essential for me.
00:46
Nicole Belloubet, Minister of Education
Digital messaging, tools for connecting teachers, students and parents, are also suspended “
until the spring holidays probably
”, declared Nicole Belloubet on RTL. It is on these messaging services that threats of attack have been received over the past week as well as a link to a video of a beheading scene. According to the Ministry of Education, more than 150 establishments were targeted, located in twenty academies in total in Paris and the regions. This decision by the Ministry of Education comes in a context of strong tensions, between threats referring to the Islamic State, particularly shocking images, the international context with the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, and the principal of Ravel high school threatened with death on the internet after an altercation with a student who refused to remove her veil.
The closure announced by the Minister of Education will make it possible to reset all accounts to secure ENTs. It is likely that the identifiers were hacked quite a long time ago, not by terrorists from abroad, but by young French people. A 17-year-old suspect was also arrested on Thursday March 28 in the Paris region and placed in police custody.
Thursday March 28, a meeting took place at the ministry on digital security in schools, to define “
better security of digital work spaces and school life software, in the short and medium term
”. “
With the representatives of elected officials and publishers, we will deploy a real digital shield
,” promised Nicole Belloubet on the social network X.
Read alsoFrance: new threats of attacks target middle and high schools in the South
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