Wearing the veil at Maurice-Ravel high school in Paris: the shock wave after the departure of the principal threatened with death, the State files a complaint

Le proviseur dirigeait la cité scolaire Maurice-Ravel, à Paris. MAXPPP – Alexis Bisson

Le professionnel devait être reçu mercredi, par le Premier ministre. L’affaire inquiète la communauté éducative et fait réagir la classe politique, de la gauche à l’extrême droite.

The departure of the principal of the Maurice-Ravel school campus, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, threatened with death after asking a student to remove her veil, on February 28, causes a wave of shock in national education.

This affair, which carries many symbols, now also shakes the political class who see it, from the left to the extreme right, as a "failure"  faced with the "Islamist threat", after the recent assassinations of professors Samuel Paty (2020 ) and Dominique Bernard (2023).

This failure is "collective",points out Boris Vallaud, at the head of the socialist deputies. "It is unacceptable that in our country, a principal is forced to resign because he is threatened with death for having enforced the law of 2004, agrees Carole Delga (PS), president of the Occitanie Region. Secularism, it must be reaffirmed, is not discrimination but the guarantee of all freedoms."

"No one has to get used to it"

"No one can accept that the safety of a public official cannot be ensured. No one has to get used to it. I give her unfailing support, adds the elected official, also at the head of the regions of France.

"This is what "no waves" leads to, this is where small cowardices and big renunciations lead us", deplores the leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau.

"The State lets Islamism rule the roost in our school", asserts François- Xavier Bellamy, candidate of the same party for the European elections. "This government is incapable of protecting our schools", tackle Marine Le Pen (RN).

The State files a complaint

Supported on March 5 by the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, who had gone to his establishment, placed under protection, the principal finally preferred to leave his functions on Tuesday , citing reasons of "security", while the Paris rectorate is talking about early retirement.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who had made the firm defense of secularism one of the markers of his brief visit to rue de Grenelle, made a point of receiving him on Wednesday afternoon at Matignon.

"This is a situation that can happen to all of us"

Gabriel Attal announced, Wednesday evening on TF1, that the State was going to file a complaint against the veiled young woman "for slanderous denunciation", the latter having accused the head of the establishment of having molested her.

"This is a situation that can happen to all of us", underlines, on France Info, Philippe Beuchot , general secretary of the union of school heads SNUPDEN-FSU. A 26-year-old young man, arrested after these online threats and placed under judicial supervision, must be tried on April 23.