“Freedom of expression at school: ‘For my students, Charlie Hebdo is the extreme right,’” translated from “Liberté d’expression à l’école : ‘Pour mes élèves, Charlie Hebdo, c’est l’extrême droite,’” by Anthony Cortes and Célia Cuordifede, Marianne, October 19, 2020:
The assassination of Professor Samuel Paty upsets the faculty. After the feeling of revulsion, there is this fear of rubbing shoulders with forbidden subjects: religion, cartoons and freedom of expression.
Gaël J. apologizes, he “shouldn’t”. He shouldn’t use this martial vocabulary. Obviously, a teacher shouldn’t say that, especially not at the start of a career. A professor of history and geography at a college at the Amiens Academy (Somme), this 30-year-old who is retraining apologizes. One, two, three times. Then he blurted out these offensive words: “The death of 47-year-old colleague Samuel Paty is a loss on the front lines, at the front. Suddenly, we understand that we are doing a dangerous job. The day before yesterday, I didn’t think about it, and today it jumps out at me: we are potential targets.”
Deep down, he knew it without really formulating it. Simply, this drama brings him abruptly back to his mission, to his daily life, and to these sometimes tricky paths, often polluted by excesses. The most mined land? The hours of moral and civic education for which history and geography teachers are responsible, the very ones which earned Samuel Paty a death sentence.
A student: “If we go beyond the limits, there will be attacks”.
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