The Le Havre teacher who pulled out a knife in front of his students will be judged on Friday

Europe 1 with AFP 9:39 a.m., March 29, 2024

A teacher, accused in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) for having made violent remarks and taking out a knife in front of his students, was tried on Friday by the criminal court for "psychological violence with a weapon" and "prohibited carrying of a weapon". The incident occurred on October 21, 2023 at the Claude-Monet high school in Le Havre during a lesson by this history-geography teacher aged around fifty who was discussing current events, a few days after the tribute to Samuel Paty and the assassination of Dominique Bernard.

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Four students filed a complaint

“His students ask him what he would do if he was attacked like Samuel Paty or Dominique Bernard, he answers ‘Paty had a hammer in his bag, I have that’ and he takes out his Opinel” declared his lawyer Antoine Siffert at AFP. Four students who witnessed the scene had filed a complaint, according to the prosecution.

The two teachers were assassinated in Islamist attacks, Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in October 2020 and Dominique Bernard in Arras, on October 13, 2023, just a few days before the Le Havre episode. “This is a teacher, a secularist referent, not very popular, exhausted before the holidays and obsessed with the terrorist context of the assassinations of teachers, who will tip over at the height of his delirium” added Me Siffert.

On March 26, a psychiatrist detected “psychological exhaustion” in this “fragile and vulnerable” professor, according to the lawyer. The teacher was placed under judicial supervision pending his trial according to Bruno Dieudonné, public prosecutor in Le Havre. He is prohibited from practicing or appearing within his establishment.