French schoolgirl, 12, threatens to kill teacher with a knife and has to be physically restrained in classroom days after Muslim pupils shown painting of nude women left tutor scared for her life
A 12-year-old schoolgirl threatened a teacher with a knife at a school in northern France on Wednesday, the latest in a growing number of incidents that have increased tensions in the French education system.
The schoolgirl allegedly challenged her teacher at Hautes-Ournes secondary school in Rennes and brandished a knife in the middle of the classroom, judicial sources told French media.
Other staff members managed to restrain the girl before she could commit any violence, and immediately handed her over to gendarmes who were urgently called to the premises.
The motive behind the armed threat from the student, born in 2011 in Marseille, is currently unknown.
But Rennes prosecutor Philippe Astruc said the schoolgirl went to class “with the apparent intention of killing her English teacher,” adding that local authorities had opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
The disturbing threat comes less than a week after a French court convicted six teenagers for their role in the 2020 beheading of Samuel Paty outside his high school near Paris after helping identify him as a radicalized Islamist.
And it's not the only incident of tension between staff and students. Last week, a teacher at the Jacques Cartier school in Issou, west of Paris, reportedly feared for her life after a group of Muslim students threatened her and accused her of racism when she showed an Italian Renaissance painting to the class.
The schoolgirl is said to have challenged her teacher at the Hautes-Ournes secondary school in the south of Rennes
It came shortly after a teacher in Issou, west of Paris, 'feared for her life' after being criticized on social media for showing students this Renaissance painting – 'Diana and Actaeon' by Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari
A sign hanging outside the school in Issou claimed that there were incidents at the school while resources to resolve them were scarce
The Jacques Cartier school in Issou is at the center of a row after a teacher showed a 17th-century nude painting to children
French Education Minister Gabriel Attal said those who made false claims about the teacher in question would be punished
The students are said to have expressed their outrage after the teacher showed the 17th-century masterpiece 'Diana and Actaeon' by the Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari during a drawing lesson on Thursday.
The work portrays a story from Greek mythology in which the hunter Actaeon bursts into a place where the goddess Diana and her nymphs are bathing. It depicts a naked Diana and four naked female companions, and is held in the Louvre in Paris.
Fellow staffers refused to work in solidarity with the teacher on Monday, when Minister Gabriel Attal visited the school and said disciplinary proceedings would be launched “against the students responsible for this situation and who have also admitted to the facts.”
The female teacher's name and false claims that she had made racist comments against Muslim students were subsequently spread on social media, reports said, raising fears that she could be targeted by extremists.
Sophie Venetitay, secretary general of the secondary school teachers' union Snes-FSU, told broadcaster BFMTV: 'We know very well that such methods can lead to tragedy… We saw it in the murder of Samuel Paty.
'Our colleagues feel threatened and in danger.'
Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was stabbed and beheaded in October 2020 in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, just 20 kilometers from Issou, after being tracked down by an Islamic extremist who saw his name online. .
During a discussion about freedom of expression, Paty had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
And in October, another radicalized Islamist stabbed his former teacher Dominique Bernard to death in the northern city of Arras.
In an email sent to parents on Friday, teachers in Issou said they were exercising their right to stay away from classrooms due to the “particularly difficult situation” at the high school.
They called 'palpable discomfort' and 'an increase in the number of cases of violence' their daily reality.
History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded outside a school near Paris
Pedestrians pass a poster depicting French teacher Samuel Paty on November 3, 2020, after the teacher's beheading on October 16
Paty was violently stabbed to death and then beheaded by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov on October 16, 2020
A photo taken on October 16, 2023 shows a memorial plaque for murdered teacher Samuel Paty near the Bois d'Aulne school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, outside Paris
Paty's death sparked a large demonstration in Paris by freedom of speech advocates
Teachers said the students admitted to making things up online, but it was too late to quell the anger.
“We are dealing with vindictive parents who would rather believe their children than us,” they said in a statement.
Teachers at the school said behavior had deteriorated even before the fight, with students fighting and threatening rape.
“We feel like we're clearly in danger. We are supported by our immediate superiors, but not from above,” said a teacher The times. “This is a real cry for help.”
Minister Attal said disciplinary proceedings would be initiated “against the students responsible for this situation and who have also admitted to the facts.”
A team would also be deployed to the school to ensure that it adheres to the “values of the republic”, he said.
According to French broadcaster BFMTV, the same school reportedly recorded ten incidents of discrimination or racism during the school year this year.
“The climate within this college has been tense since the beginning of this year, mainly because parents of students are systematically questioning the content of the courses and the punishments,” said a source, noting that several complaints have been filed by teachers.