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In the late afternoon of Friday, Samuel Paty was found dead some distance from the Bois d’Aulne school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, north of Paris. The alleged perpetrator was shot and killed by police a few blocks from the crime scene.
The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism. According to Le Monde, the police have found photographs of Samuel Paty on a Twitter account with the text: “Macron, the leader of the infidels. I have executed one of your dogs from hell, who has dared to belittle Muhammad.”
Samuel Paty had worked for several years at school, where he taught geography and history. The school is described as quiet in the city of about 35,000 residents.
A mother of one of the students says that the teacher was “very withdrawn, nice, appreciated by the students and their peers.”
– He loved his work and respected his students, he tells Le Parisien.
16-year-old student Nathan says Samuel Paty was “little” with shaggy brown hair, wore sunglasses and always wore a shirt. He says the teacher loved his profession and was known for his commitment to the students at the school.
– I really wanted to teach us things. He held discussions from time to time and we talked, Nathan says.
“I’m Samuel” is written on a sign outside the school where Samuel Paty worked.
Photo: Michel Euler / AP
Early october Samuel Paty showed images of Muhammad cartoons in Charlie Hebdo magazine to a group of students in connection with a course on freedom of expression. According to the anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard, the parents were outraged and complained to the school, which was threatened.
According to one student, this was not the first time the teacher had shown the drawings, it was a recurring feature every year.
– Obviously it was a teacher who used to talk to them about Islam, about cartoons and all that, it was not the first time that my son came home and said “the teacher told us about it today”, says a father to another student in France 24.
According to Rodrigo Arenas, one of the leaders of the school’s parents’ association, Samuel Paty offered the Muslim students to leave the classroom before showing a drawing of the prophet Muhammad squatting with a star on his back and the words “He is born a star”.
“I am a teacher” is written on a poster held by a protester during a protest in Rennes, western France, the day after the event north of Paris.
Photo: Damien Meyer / AFP
A colleague of the teacher says she heard students calling Samuel Paty a racist and Islamophobic. But the father of a 13-year-old student at the school claims that the teacher did not show that the drawings were stupid.
– He did not do it to create contradictions or out of disrespect for children or to discriminate. He said he was very nice, he says, referring to his son.
Martial, a 16-year-old student, says that she immediately understood which teacher it was when she learned of the act.
– When I heard “master – Bois d’Aulne – decapitating” I immediately made the connection.
Read more:
More people arrested for brutal murder of teachers in Paris
Man beheaded in a Paris suburb: alleged perpetrator shot
