After they stopped doing their jobs on Tuesday November 26 following the imposition of sanctions by two disciplinary committees that they considered ‘insufficient in view of the extremely serious facts’, the teachers of the Branly high school in Dreux gathered for a school assembly on Wednesday November 27. (…)
‘Our hour-long walkout is in response to the decisions of the last two disciplinary committees to rule on two cases involving the glorification of terrorism. The first concerned a student who turned up on September 11 wearing a football shirt flocked with the message ‘Neb Nedal’, which potentially means Bin Laden read backwards, and which was above the number 11, echoing the attacks of 9/11. The second disciplinary panel concerned a high school student who, during a French lesson on freedom of expression in which Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard were honoured, apparently justified their murder, describing it as an ‘act of charity’.
The two disciplinary councillors expelled both pupils from school, but suspended them on probation. They remain at school, ‘but have changed classes’, as the teachers explained. They are of the opinion that ‘the punishment does not correspond to the seriousness of the offences. The suspension is not understood by the school community, as nothing has really changed regarding the two pupils. Although they have changed classes, they remain in contact with the teachers and pupils.’ High school students who were interviewed yesterday stated ‘that they distance themselves from such behaviour. We are Muslims, but we do not justify these heinous acts in any way’.
‘Since the opening of the Lycée de Hanches, the educational circumstances have changed and Branly has become a neighbourhood high school. There is no longer an ethnic mix,’ adds a teacher.
(…) The demonstrators hope that they will be ‘heard and supported’ and that ‘the problems will not be swept under the carpet’. One teacher says: ‘Teaching certain subjects such as philosophy or even maths is becoming more and more complicated. You always have to justify yourself and be very careful what you say’. L’Écho Républicain