With emotion and under close surveillance, Arras is preparing to pay, on Thursday October 19, a last tribute to the French teacher, Dominique Bernard, stabbed to death in front of his middle school by a radicalized former student, an assassination which placed France in a state of alert. The funeral of the 57-year-old professor, married to a teacher and father of three daughters who are now adults, is due to begin at Arras Cathedral at 10 a.m., in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, his wife, Brigitte Macron, and the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal.
Presided over by the Bishop of Arras, Olivier Leborgne, the religious ceremony will be broadcast on the big screen on Place des Héros, at the foot of the city’s belfry. A large part of the center of Arras is subject to a major security system for these funerals, with a ban on parking since Wednesday evening and on driving until Thursday afternoon. Classes are suspended in the morning at the Gambetta-Carnot school campus, scene of the attack, allowing staff and students to attend.
In a decree published in the Official Journal on Thursday, the Presidency of the Republic also announced that it would appoint the professor to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor, the highest French honorary decoration. He “first intervened, and undoubtedly saved many lives himself,” Emmanuel Macron said on the day of the attack.
“If only it could create an electric shock.”
The death of Dominique Bernard on October 13, occurring almost three years to the day after the assassination of history and geography professor Samuel Paty in the Paris region by a radicalized young man, caused a wave of shock, particularly among teachers .
In an interview published Wednesday in the Christian weekly La Vie, the mother and sister of the teacher, described by his colleagues and students as a passionate and attentive man, say they hope that he “is the last” murdered professor. “If only it could create an electric shock to make us all say that we need tolerance, so that France remains a welcoming land,” they add.
France went on “emergency attack” alert on the evening of the attack, carried out by Mohammed Mogouchkov, a radicalized Russian who claims to be a member of the Islamic State organization. The attacker was indicted for murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise and imprisoned Tuesday evening. His 16-year-old brother is charged with complicity and a 15-year-old cousin with voluntary failure to prevent a crime. Mohammed Mogouchkov had caused panic in the establishment with knives in hand, killing Dominique Bernard before injuring three other adults, two of them seriously, then being arrested.
Listed for radicalization, he was followed by the DGSI “since the end of July”, according to Gérald Darmanin, due to links with his brother, imprisoned for his participation in a planned attack targeting the Elysée, and his father , also registered “S”. The latter, deported in 2018, is “very probably” in Georgia, according to a police source.