“Monsieur Paty”, the decapitated professor, loved his job

Because he had shown caricatures of Muhammad to his students, Samuel Paty met the wrath of some of their parents. Teacher at a college in the Paris region, “thoroughly in his profession”, as described by those who worked with him, he was beheaded on Friday in an attack.

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“When I saw teacher – Bois d’Aulne – beheading, I made the direct link: it is Mr. Paty”, assures Martial, 16 years old, rushed Friday evening in front of the college of Bois d’Aulne with friends as soon as he heard the news, coming out of football training.

This high school student remembers his 4th year history and geography teacher very well in this reputedly quiet school, located in the heart of a residential area which is just as much in this city of 35,000 inhabitants in the north-west of Paris.

“At the start of the year, he introduced himself. He said that he was in Créteil “in another college” and that he came because his wife was transferred for her work “, recalls the young man.

Samuel Paty, short brown hair, was “short”, wore glasses, “always had a shirt,” recalls Nathan, 16, another former Bois d’Aulne.

The father, in his forties, was known for his investment in his students. “He was fully in his profession”, which he “liked a lot”, says Martial. “He really wanted to teach us things. From time to time, we had debates, we spoke ”.

Samuel Paty was beheaded in a street near the college, around 5:00 p.m. The school holidays of All Saints barely sounded, the assailant – an 18-year-old Chechen Russian – threw himself on him, before being, a little later, shot dead by the police.

Emmanuel Macron, who visited the scene on Friday evening, denounced a “characterized Islamist attack” and called on “the whole nation” to unite behind the teachers to “protect and defend them”. A national tribute will be paid to him.

According to the first elements of the investigation, the teacher had shown his students of 4th, last week, a caricature of Mohammed.

A report had reached Rodrigo Arenas, co-president of the FCPE, the first association of parents of students, because of the tensions caused by his initiative with certain parents of students.

According to a source familiar with the matter, a parent of an indignant student had filed a complaint against Samuel Paty, who in return had filed a defamation complaint against him.

The victim allegedly, according to Mr. Arenas, “invited the Muslim students to leave the class” before showing a drawing of the prophet crouching with a star drawn on his buttocks and the inscription “a star is born”.

“It was all the years that he did this,” said Virginie, 15, who knew the teacher. “It was on the program for the EMC (moral and civic education, editor’s note), it was to talk about freedom from the Charlie Hebdo attack, he showed these images, the caricatures”, indicates the young girl .

A “sensitive” subject, remembers his Martial side, who attended the same course three years ago.

But this year, the student’s father launched a message on social networks. In a video, he describes the teacher as a “thug” who “must no longer stay in the National Education” and invites other parents of students to mobilize.

Since this “story”, Mr. Paty “was not on his plate,” Myriam, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, had observed, mimicking his scowl when he wandered the halls.

“I heard students talking ‘ah he’s racist’,” she said. Other qualifiers circulated on his account as “Islamophobic”, she slips half-word.

“He did not do this to create controversy or to disrespect children or to discriminate,” says Nordine Chaouadi. Her 13-year-old son was entering his second year of classes with Mr. Paty. “He said to me, ‘he was super nice that gentleman,'” said the father.