Twelve million pupils returned to school in France yesterday for the first time since an Islamist extremist beheaded teacher Samuel Paty, who had used cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression.
Schools held a minute’s silence in honor of Paty at 11am and teachers reminded pupils of their rights and duties in a “free democracy.”
Paty was murdered in a middle-class Paris suburb on the eve of a two-week holiday, which French President Emmanuel Macron cast as an attack on French values and the Republic itself.
Photo: AP
France is at its highest level of security after further attacks, including in a church in Nice and against a preacher in Lyon, since Paty’s killing, deploying thousands of soldiers to protect places of worship and schools.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer paid their respects alongside staff at the Le Bois d’Aulne college where Paty taught.
The high school opened to teachers yesterday, but was keeping its doors closed to students until today.
Photo: Reuters
Macron has described Paty as a “quiet hero” dedicated to instilling core French values of freedom of belief and expression in his students.
Teachers across France were scheduled read a letter written to teachers by Jean Jaures in which the 19th century political figure sets out their role in nurturing young citizens.
“They will be citizens and they must know what a free democracy is, what rights confers on them, what duties the sovereignty of the nation imposes on them,” Jaures wrote.
Teachers were also urged to teach the country’s children to “know France, its geography and its history, its body and its soul.”
In Germany and the Netherlands, many schools were also paying tribute to Paty.
“We can send a sign of solidarity with those teachers who are committed to democratic coexistence,” German Senator Sandra Sheeres, who heads the Senate’s Department of Education, Youth and Family, wrote in a message to Berlin schools asking them to participate.
Scheeres also asked those participating to explain the background to their students to make them aware of “tolerance and solidarity as well as against violence and extremism.”
The Dutch education ministers asked schools, colleges and universities to find ways to express their support.
“The Netherlands stands squarely behind teachers and the constitutional freedom of expression,” ministers Arie Slob and Ingrid van Engelshoven wrote.
Additional reporting by AP
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