Target of death threats on the internet since his altercation, a month ago, with an adult student who had refused to remove her veil in the school grounds, the principal of the Ravel high school, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, has just leave office.
“Terror has set in
,” says a professor who knows the case well.
From jihadist activists to adolescents exploited on social networks, those who want to bring down the school of the Republic now know how to do it: by terrorizing it.
The removal of this principal conveys the image of a State overwhelmed by Islamist pressure, even though the National Education, police and justice services have been widely mobilized.
The republican and secular school has become a target for what it is
, continues this same professor.
A whole section of society is still in denial, including teachers.
Certainly, at the political level, there is real awareness, but it comes too late.”
Threats
While Mickaëlle Paty, almost three and a half years after the assassination of her brother, Samuel, thrown out to pasture on social networks, has just initiated a
“symbolic”
approach , in her words, for the State to recognize its responsibility (from the Ministry of National Education through that of the Interior), the time is no longer for procrastination.
After the altercation which took place on February 28 at the Ravel high school, the Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet, gave her full support to the principal and went to the Parisian high school, accompanied by the police prefect, Laurent Nuñez .
From March 1, the principal benefited from the functional protection granted by the ministry.
The heads of Parisian establishments gathered on March 4 in front of the Sorbonne, to unite behind their colleague.
Also read “How not to make the connection with Samuel Paty?”: at Ravel high school, angry teachers and students in the dark of rumors
The police, sent to the area around the establishment on February 29, are still patrolling there.
As for the Paris rectorate, it made a report to the public prosecutor, on the basis of article 40, and the online threats were reported to the Ministry of the Interior.
The national center for the fight against online hatred opened an investigation, in which two individuals were identified as being behind the death threats.
One of them is due to be tried on April 23 in Paris.
Despite this, the headmaster of Ravel high school left his position.
“I respect his decision. And I understand it. When I was attacked in 2001, I was unable to set foot in my establishment again. I asked my superiors for a transfer
,” says Kamel Aït Bouali, today head of the Paul-Bert school campus, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and academic secretary of Sgen-CFDT.
He wishes to highlight the violence of the Ravel affair:
“That of a principal who, after asking a young girl to remove her veil, in accordance with the 2004 law, was threatened with death on social networks, on background of rumors.”
Quoted on March 1 in the columns of Le
Parisien
, the young girl, a BTS student, claimed to have been
“pushed”
and
“hit violently on the arm”
.
She also testified to this effect on the Bondy Blog.
Quickly, on social networks, there was talk of a
“slap”
given by the head of the establishment.
An element refuted by the rectorate and the Minister of Education.
But without much weight on the net.
When I was attacked in 2001, I was unable to set foot in my establishment again. I asked my superiors for a transfer
Kamel Aït Bouali, academic secretary of Sgen-CFDT in Paris
“An early departure”
On March 18, the Collective against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) - a reminiscence of the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), dissolved in France in 2021 -, a machine for tracking "Islamophobia", published a video of the young girl giving
“her version”
of the story.
“I didn't even have time to justify myself or say anything when he pushed me violently and hit me violently in the arm,”
she said before to add:
“In the media, they talk nonsense, they don’t tell the truth.”
Finally, she specifies:
“I was told about your association and I was told that you are really the only ones I can trust.”
Read also Principal threatened with death in Paris: does a BTS student have the right to wear the veil?
It is in this climate that, on March 22, in an email addressed to his colleagues, the headmaster of the Ravel high school explained that he had made the decision
"as of this evening"
to leave his functions
"for safety for (him) and for the establishment”
, after
“forty-five years in National Education”
.
An email that the media reported on March 26.
L'Humanité
even broadcast it in its entirety, without taking care to mask the identity of the author or other information involving the establishment and its staff.
In the process, the Paris rectorate confirmed this departure:
“The principal of the Maurice-Ravel high school arriving a few months before his retirement, it was decided, in view of the events which have marked these last weeks, their media coverage and the impact they may have had on him, to grant him an early departure,”
he said before evoking, to AFP
,
“
personal convenience”.
A common expression, but very clumsy given the circumstances.
“Catch-all terms, extremely shocking
,” asserts Jean-Rémi Girard at Snalc, a teaching union.
Communication is not up to par.
The problem is that, since February 2, there has been no rector of Paris
(resigning during the Amélie Oudéa-Castera episode, Editor's note).
»
“Defeat of the State”
in the face of
“the Islamist gangrene which is thriving”
, according to Marion Maréchal, head of the Reconquest list in the European elections, consequence of
“small cowardices and big renunciations”
for the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, or even
“ collective failure”
for the socialist Boris Vallaud… From the extreme right to the left, political leaders were indignant at the departure of the principal.
On the far left, LFI has not made its voice heard.
It must be said that, on March 1, Danielle Simonnet, one of her Parisian deputies, invited people to take the Ravel affair with a pinch of salt.
“Did the principal hit the student?”
asked the elected official, fueling the rumors circulating on social networks, before asserting that
“respect for not wearing the veil does not justify any physical violence”
.
On March 27, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, - who banned the abaya when he was at National Education - was forced to play firefighter.
At his request, he met with the principal to show him the support of the
“highest level of the state”
.
“There is no ambiguity about the fact that this head of establishment is leaving his position to ensure his safety
,” people around him explain.
There is no taboo.
“For a principal or a teacher to stop practicing due to threats is necessarily a failure
,” we add.