One year to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, a series of tributes is scheduled this weekend throughout France and mainly in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines).
It is in this town of 35,000 inhabitants that the history-geography teacher worked at the Bois de l'Aulne college and that he was found beheaded by a young Chechen terrorist on October 18, 2020.
But in the establishment, the modalities of these commemorations are not unanimous.
The parents of the students, who demanded to be associated with it from the month of July, will finally stay at the door this Friday.
A way of protesting "against their orchestrated exclusion" by the Academy of Versailles from the "internal" homage to the college this Saturday.
Read also Death of Samuel Paty: Conflans-Saint-Honorine will unveil a monument for freedom of expression
"We believe that each student and parent should be able to attend the tribute if they wished," says Corinne Grootaert, president of the Federation of Parents' Councils (FCPE) of Yvelines.
For Saturday, we were first told about a gauge of 120 people, officials and college staff included, then increased it to 200 by simply adding students… But you don't think that, given the context , does the pupil have reasons and the right to want to be accompanied by his parents?
For us, this tribute should have represented an inescapable unity in the face of barbarism, and today we find ourselves outside of that.
The leader and mother of a student from the Bois de l'Aulne even cracked a letter of discontent to the Ministry of National Education.
The 600 students were surveyed by the Academy of Versailles
“If you don't change your mind about the October 15 tribute, we, the parents' representatives, will not be attending the official October 16 tribute.
We will not serve as a
deposit.
Either you see the parents as an integral part of this establishment, or you exclude them, ”she writes.
This Tuesday, his federation and the other elected parents were received by the Academy of Versailles which had proposed adjustments the day before, despite its reluctance to invite on Saturday an audience too large for safety standards.
The 600 students (except the 6th) were thus surveyed and a third, according to the academy, would have expressed the wish to be present during the tribute on Saturday.
“This is the only reason that pushed them to raise the bar to 300 people, but how would they have done if the 600 students had responded favorably?
asks Corinne Grootaert again.
I would like to remind you that this gauge story does not hold up since the students have been in face-to-face since the start of the September school year.
We are leading a fight that does not have to be.
"
