The murder last week of a schoolteacher in the town of Arras, north-east France, who was stabbed by a former pupil of the school in what investigators are treating as a terrorist act, has prompted intense debate among education staff and parents on how to improve security in schools without transforming them into fortress-like buildings.
The debate comes amid already mounting alarm in public opinion over the series of violent incidents reported in schools over recent years. The killing of French-language teacher Dominique Bernard in the Gambetta-Carnot secondary school in Arras last Friday, when three other staff were seriously wounded in the attack by 20-year-old Mohammed Mogoushkov, came almost three years to the day since the stabbing murder and decapitation on October 16th 2020 of Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, close to his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
In an immediate response to the widespread horror over Bernard’s murder, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced the number of soldiers taking part in the nationwide anti-terrorist operation “Sentinelle” – essentially engaged in street patrols and guarding potential terrorist targets – was to be increased from about 3,000 to around 7,000. Interior minister Gérald Darmanin, meanwhile, pledged that a “very strongly increased vigilance towards all [educational] establishments” had been introduced, while education minister Gabriel Attal announced that around 1,000 members of mobile security teams have been deployed since Monday to heighten security in schools. These teams can intervene within or at close quarters to schools in partnership with the police.
It appears that Attal has distanced himself from the more hardline, proposed security measures, which include introducing greater numbers of CCTV cameras, deploying metal detectors and even entrance gates using biometric identification devices. Such equipment is costly and their effectiveness is questioned by some. Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the French teachers’ union Snes-FSU, dismissed them as “gadgets” aimed above all at “diverting [public] opinion”.
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In 2019, France’s watchdog on the use of personal data, the CNIL, advised on a planned experimentation of entrance gates using facial recognition in schools in the southern cities of Marseille and Nice, which it found was “unnecessary”, while also detailing its reservations over both their eventual effectiveness and the capacity to adhere to confidentiality and data protection regulations, notably concerning minors.
The CNIL has also been critical of the extention of video surveillance in schools, which it recommended should be limited to use outside of school buildings and during school hours, while it also issued a reminder of the regulations restricting the amount of time images can be kept.
However, some French regions, including that of Île-de-France (covering Paris and its outlying area), along with those of Paca and the Rhône-Alpes in the south-east, have nevertheless introduced such measures. In 2022, the Rhône-Alpes regional council allocated a budget of 10 million euros for a so-called “school security pact” to be used for the “installation of video-protection systems around schools and for the replacement of obsolete or vandalised cameras”.
Another criticism of “smart” entrance gates is that they encourage the formation of crowds of people entering, something which school administrations keenly want to avoid. “We also changed our opinion over what was wrongly believed to be the good idea of introducing visual checks of bags,” said Sylvie Perron, national secretary of the Sgen-CFDT teachers’ union, speaking after a meeting on Tuesday this week with the education minister. “It creates crowds, takes time and causes tension. It is difficult in a place of education to have this kind of relationship of suspicion.”
Attal has announced the imminent launching of a “flash” inquiry into how to improve security in educational establishments. But for Perron, “There are currently already quite a few holes in the net” that need fixing. Sophie Vénétitay agreed. “Gaps in fencing, alarm buttons that don’t work, car parks open to all, that is a reality in many establishments. Rather than gadgets like cameras and detector gates, we want a proper audit of the points of entrance and exit, and eventually a sum of money for the local authorities to carry out work [on them].”
Faulty attack alarms
The situation at the lycée Eugène-Hénaff in the Paris suburb of Bagnolet is an example of the “holes in the net”. When schools around France on Monday observed a minute’s silence in homage to Dominique Bernard, the schoolteacher murdered in Arras, around 50 teachers from the lycée gathered in front of the offices of their local education authority, the Créteil rectorat, which is the second largest in France, to hold their own silent tribute to him. For just 15 days before Mogoushkov’s knife rampage in Arras, a drunken man succeeded in entering a classroom in their secondary school, when he threatened a teacher. “I’m going to rip your head off,” he reportedly said, “I’m going to do a Samuel Paty to you.” A member of staff had unsuccessfully attempted to set off an intruder alarm.
The following day, there was a new intrusion at the school, this time into the teachers’ car park. Last year a knife fight which broke out in front of the school left several people wounded, including a member of staff who had to be hospitalised. “So for us, the talk about security makes us laugh,” said one of the lycée’s staff, speaking to Mediapart on condition her name was withheld. “We used our right to stop work because of a serious and imminent danger. We asked for a meeting, [but] we obtained nothing. In front of the school, apart from the bailiff [editor’s note, in France a bailiff can also be missioned as a witness] no-one came down to talk to us, it was total contempt.”
Questioned by Mediapart, the local education authority said both the intruder alarm and the car park entrance had since been repaired.
At the lycée Henri-Sellier in the nearby suburb of Livry-Gargan, which comes under the same education authority, a banner reading “Lycées in danger” has since Monday been placed over the entrance to the school. Around 30 teaching staff there have also used their right to stop working because of the insecurity in the premises. “Anyone can dive in through the teachers’ carpark, in 30 seconds they can rush into a classroom,” said a teacher at the school, also speaking on condition his name was withheld. According to staff, danger alarms are not functioning properly because of building work being carried out in the establishment, and there is no alternative plan for safety measures in case of an attack or fire. “For the moment here has been no serious problem, but we want to take action before there is one,” said the teacher. A spokesperson for the local education authorities said they were “very astonished” by the situation, and have referred the matter to the greater Paris (Île-de-France) regional authorities who are in charge of building work on schools.
Bomb alerts
The education minister on Thursday revealed there had been 299 “false” bomb alerts targeting French schools nationwide since the start of the new term in September, One of the most recent was at the Gambetta-Carnot secondary school in Arras, where Dominique Bernard was murdered. “There were 75 just for today”, said Attal, speaking on French V channel France 2. “It began before at Arras attack, but we see there have been a great number of them these last days.” He added that “several tens” of those behind the bomb scares had been arrested. “They sometimes involve pupils aged 11, 12, 13 and 14”, he said.
“Our signal [attack alarm] has been out of service since more than a year and it has to be repaired, so we use the fire alarm,” said a teacher from the lycée Branly in the south-east Paris suburb of Créteil, which has received bomb threats. He and some of his colleagues have also used their right to stop work over the situation. Another bomb alert targeted the lycée on Monday, when the nationwide minute of silence in homage to Bernard was observed. “We are aware that there is most probably not a bomb but, honestly, it’s not at all reassuring,” added the teacher. “Especially after [what happened] Friday.” He and his colleagues are also unhappy that it took one hour and a quarter to announce the all clear, whereas in general the process of verification generally lasts several hours.
“We were already taken up with managing these bomb alerts before the drama on Friday, it now obviously takes on a different colour,” said the local education authorities. “The instructions given are very clear, the heads of establishments must strictly adhere to the rules surrounding the [verification process] over the presence or not of explosives.” In the Val-de-Marne département (county), seven minors aged between 13 and 16 were recently arrested over their suspected involvement in the bomb alerts, and several of them are to be sent for trial, according to a statement on Tuesday by the public prosecution services.
“We’ve been carrying out exercises for isolating [pupils and teachers] in the case of an attack since 2015, which is what allowed for placing the youngsters in safety in Arras,” said Sylvie Perron from the Sgen-CFDT teachers’ union. “We are very trained. But there needs to be a button [-triggered alarm] for acting very quickly. In some places, there are still [school] management colleagues who walk around the corridors with their foghorn.”
Everyone on the ground insist on the need for human means, such as an increase in the numbers of adults present at school entrances, in order to ensure a climate of serenity. “We have almost 2,000 pupils,” commented the schoolteacher from the lycée Eugène-Hénaff in Bagnolet. “We already have difficulty in getting them to take off their caps […] and now it’ll be required that we search each one’s bag. It’s ridiculous.”
“We’re not a team who demand outrageous extra security means,” she added, “but rather simply to be able to work normally each day of the year.”
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse