Attack in Arras: Gabriel Attal wants measures to “get” radicalized students out of schools

The Minister of Education Gabriel Attal announced Thursday that he was “working on measures” that would make it possible to “extract” radicalized students from schools, with his colleagues from Justice and the Interior, a week after the attack which cost the life of a teacher in Arras. “I will work with my colleague from the Interior and my colleague from Justice on measures that will allow us to remove them from our schools,” he said on France 2.

“We are in the process of assessing” the number of potentially radicalized minors

When education personnel “report students who, according to them, potentially constitute a threat (…) because of comments they have made or acts they have committed, the principle of protection that I want to apply to all of our students and staff, a fact that we must find another solution than sending them to school,” he declared. “We must think of specialized structures that can accommodate them” and “I will take all precautionary exclusion measures” necessary, added the minister.

Gabriel Attal said he “deeply believes in the role of education in reducing radicalization”, but “in certain situations, the level of recruitment in the family, and sometimes of associations which revolve around it, is such that we cannot does not fight on equal terms. A little earlier in the evening, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke on BFMTV of “more than 1,000 minors with active forms for Islamism”.

“There are around a thousand minors who are monitored” but some are, because a member of their family is particularly monitored, said Gabriel Attal. “We are in the process of evaluating” the number of potentially radicalized minors, added the minister, estimating this number at “probably several dozen”.

“A little more than 500” incidents reported during the tribute to Dominique Bernard

The Minister of Education also updated the number of incidents noted during the minute of silence observed Monday in middle and high schools, during the tribute to Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty: according to the latest reports, “a little more 500 incidents were notified by school heads.

“Systematically, we contact the public prosecutor” and “we initiate disciplinary procedures,” he said. “In the most serious cases, I asked school heads that these students be excluded as a precautionary measure, without waiting for the disciplinary council.” For false bomb threats addressed to educational establishments, the minister said he had listed 75 for Thursday, bringing the total to 299 since the start of the school year.

“We have already arrested students aged 11, 12, 13, 14 or 15, and some adults,” added the minister. “Some say ‘it was a hoax’ (…) but behind that and in the current context, you have students and education professionals for whom it is deeply traumatic.” Hearings will take place “in the very next few days” and “there will be convictions”, he assured, recalling that the maximum penalties for this offense are three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros.