Attack in Arras: Gabriel Attal wants measures to "get radicalised pupils out" of schools

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP 23:07 p.m., October 19, 2023

Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Thursday that he was "working on measures" that would allow radicalized students to be "taken out" of schools, with his colleagues from the Justice and Interior ministries, a week after the attack that claimed the life of a teacher in Arras. "I will work with my colleague of the Interior and my colleague of Justice on measures that allow us to get them out of our schools," he said on France 2.

"We are in the process of assessing" the number of potentially radicalized minors

When education staff "report students who they believe may pose a threat (...) Because of the words they have made or the acts they have committed, the principle of protection that I want to apply to all our students and staff means that we must find another solution than sending them to school," he said. "We have to think about specialized structures that can accommodate them" and "I will take all the precautionary measures of exclusion" necessary, the minister added.

Gabriel Attal said he "deeply believes in the role of education in reducing radicalisation", but "in certain situations, the level of recruitment in the family, and sometimes of the associations that revolve around it, is such that we do not fight on equal terms". Earlier in the evening, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had spoken on BFMTV of "more than 1,000 minors with active files for Islamism".

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"There are around 1,000 minors who are being monitored" but some are being monitored because a member of their family is being closely monitored, Attal said. "We are in the process of assessing" the number of potentially radicalized minors, the minister added, estimating this number at "several dozen probably".

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

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

"Systematically, we refer the matter to the public prosecutor" and "we initiate disciplinary proceedings," he said. "In the most serious cases, I have asked the heads of schools that these students be excluded as a precautionary measure, without waiting for the disciplinary council." For false bomb threats to schools, the minister said he had recorded 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," the minister added. "Some people 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 offence are three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros.