After the assassination of a teacher by a radicalized man on Friday and for fear of repercussions in France from the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the government implemented a series of measures and directives to strengthen the security of educational establishments and the educational community.
Since France’s passage on Friday evening on “emergency attack” alert (the highest level of the Vigipirate security system), numerous preventive measures have been imposed, in particular the strengthening of “surveillance and control of surroundings of educational establishments”, specifies a document from the national police consulted by Agence France-Presse.
The security needs of educational establishments, and even of members of the educational community, must be assessed by the police, with, among other things, exchanges of contacts between agents of the ministries of national education and from the inside, carrying out security audits, or even shared security diagnostics.
The document reminds national police officers to process and analyze “weak or strong signals” and to report “information for any facts that may be linked to the fight against terrorism.”
On the national education side, staff are called upon to “reinforced vigilance of entry and access to educational establishments”. At the end of a meeting with the unions on Friday evening, the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, announced the deployment of 1,000 members of mobile security teams (EMS), a system created in 2010 and intended to fight against school violence.
Do not “bunkerize” the school
“Protect and prevent” but “without “bunkering” the school”: UNSA-Education, one of the main federations of school staff, called this weekend for measures to respond to the “immense shock” caused by the death of Dominique Bernard in Arras without turning educational establishments into fortresses.
In a speech given on Saturday at the Sorbonne in Paris as part of the presentation of a prize in memory of Samuel Paty, a teacher beheaded in 2020 by a radicalized young person, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, assured for her part that the authorities would be “on hand to ensure” the safety of teachers.
If vigilance must be “reinforced” for the organization of school trips or trips to a gymnasium, they are not prohibited, specifies the minister’s entourage.
On Monday, “Classes were canceled for students until 10 a.m.,” Mr. Attal also announced on Saturday, to pay tribute to the teacher killed during the attack in a high school in Arras, Friday. Ms. Borne, for her part, promised teachers that the authorities would be “there to ensure [their] safety.”
A “time of exchange that is both human and educational” will take place within the educational teams of the establishments, Monday between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. “in memory of the victims of the attacks committed against our school”.
However, a “minimum reception” will be provided in establishments for students who have no other choice than to come before 10 a.m. and “to allow them to wait before resuming”. School transportation will take place as planned.