‘We are really afraid that this will jeopardise the school.’ Since a lesson on depictions of hell in poetry from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, a suffocating climate has settled over the Lycée Condorcet in Limay (Yvelines)… A teacher was threatened and falsely accused of blasphemy. (…)
In October, during a French lesson entitled ‘Bienvenue en Enfer’ (Welcome to Hell), a pupil in a tenth grade class asked the teacher to show ‘pictures’ depicting this concept among Muslims (…) ‘I explained to the pupils what I had seen on the internet. It was contrary to my values. Out of respect for [those] of the Muslim faith, out of respect for other faiths and out of respect for the school, I explained that I would not show them, but that they were free to do their own research’ (…).
Another student responded in an accusatory manner: ‘Madam, what you are saying is terrible. You are saying that you have seen the Prophet with women in hell. Misunderstanding? Provocation? Impudence?
He threatens his teacher: ‘By the way, madam, when do you get off work today? I think you finish early on Tuesdays? And on Thursday too?’ On leaving the classroom he even said: ‘Madame, take care of yourself when you come home tonight…’. (…)
But that’s not the end of the story. In the days that followed, the first pupil who wanted to see pictures of hell from an Islamic perspective strangely returned to every lesson and insistently asked the teacher to show these pictures to the class. The teacher, who has been on sick leave ever since, does not give in. ‘ Their behaviour becomes more and more aggressive as the days go by,’ she states in another report. (…)
According to other sources, the two boys – against whom disciplinary proceedings have been initiated – and their families are unknown to the police and are said to show no signs of radicalisation of any kind. (…)
‘Tuesday, October 15: A maths teacher sees a pupil enter her classroom. Without looking at the blackboard or the pupils, he approaches her and asks if she is a French teacher. She points out that he is not one of her pupils. No answer’. No connection can currently be made between the initial misunderstanding and this intrusion. (…)
The affair, which has been affecting the Condorcet high school in Limay (Yvelines) for almost a month, is being taken very seriously by the state authorities. (…) Actu.fr
This poor teacher is going to be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. The student should have been expelled for the rest of the school year and criminally charged with threatening the teacher’s life. How many experienced teachers have left French schools in the last five years because of crap like this? How many in other European countries? Until the French get serious about eradicating students who threaten teachers lives, France will continue to have good, hardworking teachers who throw up their hands and say, “that’s it! No more!”