A minute of silence will be observed in all middle and high schools in France today (Monday, at the initiative of France's National Education Ministry. Tribute will be paid to school teachers Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, murdered on October 16, 2020 and October 13, 2023 respectively by Jihadists.
Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old teacher, was stabbed and then beheaded by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Russian refugee of Chechen origin, on October 16, 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The 18-year-old, a radicalized Muslim, reproached him for having shown caricatures of Mohammed in class. Before being killed by the police, he had claimed responsibility for his act by congratulating himself on having "avenged the prophet".
Almost three years to the day after this tragedy, on October 13, 2023, Dominique Bernard, 57, a French teacher, was killed in Arras by Mohammed Mogouchkov, a 20-year-old Chechen, who had pledged allegiance to Daesh, who said in a long poem that he had followed Allah's will.
On its website, the ministry said "that the National Education and the nation pay tribute to them, because they died while exercising their profession and for the values that their memory continues to embody. They deserve the consideration, respect and gratitude of the education system, whose mission is to form free, equal and fraternal citizens."
In addition to the minute of silence, the Ministry of National Education invited teachers to initiate a dialogue with students to help them understand the meaning and importance of this tribute. Documents have also been made available to them.
* Cnews contributed to this article.