The headmaster of a school in Paris has been threatened with murder—after asking one of his pupils to remove her headscarf—forcing him to leave his job. In turn, the French government has announced that it intends to lodge a complaint against the young woman behind the scandal.
The affair is further proof of the authorities’ inability to deal with Islamist threats, particularly in schools.
National education regulations prohibit the wearing of religious symbols in public schools. A month ago, the headmaster of the Lycée Ravel in the twentieth arrondissement of Paris, an area in the east of the capital with a large immigrant population, had an altercation with a pupil who refused to remove her headscarf. Three pupils were cautioned, but one of them—who had reached the age of majority—chose to ignore the headmaster’s request.
The case quickly escalated when criticism and violent threats emerged on social media. The young woman’s video testimony was broadcast by the Centre Contre l’Islamophobie en Europe (CCIE), clearly indicating her desire to cause a public scandal. A 26-year-old man was arrested for making death threats against the headmaster and is due to stand trial at the end of April.
The memory of Samuel Paty is clearly fresh in the minds of the teaching staff at Lycée Ravel. A month after the incident, the headmaster finally announced that he was stepping down “for my own safety and that of the school,” according to his message seen by the newspaper L’Humanité. The Paris education authority preferred to discreetly announce his early retirement:
As the headmaster of Lycée Maurice-Ravel is just a few months away from retirement, it has been decided, in view of the events of recent weeks, the media coverage they have received and the impact they may have had on him, to grant him an early retirement, in agreement with the management of the Paris education authority.
Mickaëlle Paty, sister of murdered and beheaded teacher Samuel Paty, expressed her indignation to the press at this latest attempt by the education ministry to downplay the facts.
The departure of this respected educator has sparked outrage among French politicians. Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Les Républicains group in the French Senate, denounced the “small cowardice and big renunciations” that led to this affair. It is just one of many scandals shaking French schools, which appear rotten with Islamism and condemned to “no wave” (i.e., to silence and impotence) in the face of rising violence against teachers and educational staff.
Marion Maréchal, leader of the Reconquête list for the European elections, pointed out that such cases would be repeated ad infinitum in the years to come, given the lack of control over immigration from Muslim countries.
Pierre Sautarel, from the website Fdesouche, explains that the young woman in question lodged a complaint against the headmaster for violence, but that her complaint was dismissed. She has since been working in a nursery school with her mother as a teacher—information revealed by RTL, but since obviously deleted from the online article.
During his televised address on Wednesday 27 March, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal condemned “Islamist entryism” in schools. He admitted that the headmaster’s departure was due to security concerns: “He was due to retire in June. Some people advised him, for security reasons, to leave a little earlier,” he explained. In response to the indirect accusations made by Mickaëlle Paty, who is determined to have the state’s responsibility in her brother’s death recognised, the Prime Minister’s entourage is trying to present itself as transparent: “There is no ambiguity about the fact that this headteacher is leaving his post to ensure his safety. There are no taboos,” they say.
Attal announced his intention to lodge a complaint for “slanderous denunciation” against the young woman at the origin of the affair, who had claimed that the headmaster had used violence against her. Although she now says she regrets the way in which the events unfolded, she nevertheless maintains her version of events—which would justify the public complaint.
Predictably, this ex post facto argument sounds like an admission of weakness on the part of a state that is unable to protect its staff and enforce law and order against the growing pressure of Islamist demands. A teacher interviewed by Le Figaro analysed the situation as follows:
The republican and secular school has become a target for what it is. A whole section of society is still in denial, including teachers. Admittedly, at a political level, there is a real awareness, but it’s coming too late.
Since the incident, the Lycée Ravel has remained under police surveillance.
