Incidents of students threatening or even attacking their teachers are on the rise across the whole country and the perpetrators are often minors. Most recently, four 10-year-olds were arrested for openly promoting terrorism, and another incident involved a 15-year-old student who tried to strangle his teacher.
Since the tragedy of Samuel Paty, the French teacher beheaded with bestial cruelty on 16 October, the number of incidents with people openly praising terrorism has seen a marked increase. According to Paris Attorney General Remy Heitz, authorities have launched approximately 200 investigations in the last week of October for incitement to terrorism or hatred, or for making death threats. According to the prosecutor, the suspects are oftentimes mentally disturbed individuals who are unable to foresee the gravity of their actions but, quite shockingly, cases when minors promote terrorism are also on the rise.
According to French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, the one-minute silence in commemoration of the decapitated teacher was disrupted by around 400 incidents of disorderly conduct across the country, including minor and more serious offences.
Recently, a teacher was threatened by a 15-year-old student, who vowed to chop his head off. Authorities have also initiated proceedings against four 10-year-old boys who engaged in an open promotion of terrorism.
Following the death of Samuel Paty, murdered with extreme brutality, the French Justice Minister announced stict punishment for those who attack teachers or law enforcement officers. Presumably, these new sanctions will also apply to the 15-year-old teen who tried to strangle his teacher, who eventually managed to break away from him and notified staff members. The Latvian-born Muslim boy admitted what he did at the station but claimed that the incident was not connected with Samuel Paty’s decapitation. He confessed to attacking his teacher, complaining however that the teacher had previously slammed the classroom door on him. He is now charged with violence against a public official, the France Bleu news site writes.
The phenomenon whereby minors and children openly praise terrorism, make death threats and even attack their teachers has ramifications across the whole of France. However, all this leaves far-left activists – who, instead of condemning all intimidation and violence by students, tend to blame the teachers for filing complaints with the atrocities – eerily unperturbed.
In a recent statement Sud Education 95, a labour union operating in Val d’Oise departement, condemed the reporting of incidents where students threaten their teachers.
Others, including Taha Bouhafs – a far-left activist-journalist linked to radical Muslims who maintains particularly good ties with Assa Traore, a prominent figurehead of France’s anti-police movement – have also commented to the developments. In a rather hostile tweet, Bouhafs said teachers who report their young students to police have not managed to shed their old ways.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Islamists who are suspected of having radicalised are being expelled from France. According to the weekly Valeurs actuelles, 70 percent of those deemed dangerous come from North African countries, but there are also Russians and Chechens among them.
According to a statement by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in late August, French authorities have knowledge of over 8,000 radicalised Islamists who pose a particularly serious threat to French society. Of these, 1,500 are foreign nationals and 8-900 are residing in the country illegally.
