France: Education Minister proclaims crackdown after 340 threats towards faculties | EUROtoday

As of 6:38 p.m | Reading time: 3 minutes

HUndercover bomb threats towards faculties and the case of a Paris faculty director who was threatened with loss of life after which resigned have dominated the general public debate in France for days. In order to help educating employees and finish the wave of nameless threats, Education Minister Nicole Belloubet introduced a authorities crackdown on Friday. “In the face of threats, the state stands by your side and will never abandon you. Everything is being done to ensure your safety and that of the schools,” defined Belloubet.

“I will set up a nationwide mobile school force that can be deployed in schools with difficulties,” stated the minister in Bordeaux. The ministry's officers ought to be capable of help lecturers and be despatched to a college for an extended time frame.

At the identical time, Belloubet introduced a brief blocking of the messenger operate on the faculties' communication platform used nationwide. Many of the threats had been acquired through hacked pupil and instructor accounts; along with assault threats, beheading movies had been additionally despatched. In many circumstances, faculties had been evacuated and police examined them for explosives.

340 threats towards faculties in France

A 17-year-old was arrested on Thursday, whom police suspect of getting despatched a sequence of threatening messages and a beheading video to varsities through the platform. He was nonetheless in police custody on Friday, because the broadcaster France Info reported with regards to the investigators. According to the ministry, there have been 340 threats towards faculties because the center of final week, because the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported.

As with an identical wave of threats final fall, the authorities suspect that younger folks specifically haven’t any terrorist or political aspirations. All threats have thus far been unfounded. As within the fall, regional airports are actually additionally affected, leading to non permanent evacuations.

Death risk after dispute over headband

Also debated in France this week was the case of a Paris faculty principal who insisted {that a} pupil take away her headband at college in accordance with French rules. The incident led to arguments and loss of life threats towards the top of a highschool. He then resigned just a few months earlier than his upcoming retirement. Many politicians reacted with outrage to the threats towards the varsity principal, who was acquired by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

The headband ban in France's faculties was enacted 20 years in the past in March 2004. This was preceded by a years-long dispute over head coverings in France, which was primarily based on secularism, i.e. the strict separation of state and faith. However, the battle over the headband and the banning of non secular symbols in faculties continues.