Discreet, benevolent, passionate and above all concerned about his mission: this was according to his relatives, former students and colleagues, Samuel Paty, murdered Friday at the age of 47 years.
Bac won hands down in Moulins (Allier), he successfully went on khâgne, hypokhâgne, IUFM in Lyon. He gets his Capes on the first try. His former classmates remember a brilliant, diligent, hardworking student.
Teacher by vocation
Samuel Paty then taught history and geography for 22 years in various establishments in eastern Paris (Créteil academy), before joining the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines, Académie de Versailles).
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Collapsed. Samuel Paty was my former classmate of @univ_lyon2. He was a brilliant student, a great teacher, a man of dialogue. I will quote your name and your example comrade for all those who will still want to do this beautiful job #ConflansSainteHonorine pic.twitter.com/sUW0hmo0Gy
— Christophe Capuano (@Ch_Capuano) October 17, 2020
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Always in a shirt, he was one of those dream teachers, “deeply in his profession”, as described by his students, current or past. Of those who have become teachers by vocation and always keep in mind that they can change the lives of their students.
A committed teacher, a loving father
At the beginning of the year, Samuel Paty had explained to his students that he had followed his partner, transferred. Separated, the parents of a little Gabriel, 5, then decided to stay geographically close, to ensure joint custody of the child.
With his son as with his students, Samuel Paty could be severe, but always fair. Passionate, and fascinating: beyond the strict program, the teacher illustrated, explained and told. Outside of his class, “Monsieur Paty” multiplied activities and outings.
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Last year, he took his students to the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, seducing even the staff of the place, who in return organized a visit to his college. Or brings in his class the Paralympic swimming champion and winner of “Dance with the Stars” Sami El Gueddari, to the delight of his students, who learn to fight against prejudices, particularly related to disability, reports Le Point.
He lived in Eragny, near Conflans, with his son every other week. Neighbors and shopkeepers remember a discreet man, a loving father who taught Gabriel to cycle around.
Each day, Samuel Paty walked home from college. Lately he was a little worried, nothing more.
He had changed his route to return home
But the “affair” of the cartoons has shaken him: a cabal led by one or more parents says he is Islamophobic, and calls for his dismissal. Samuel Paty, however, taught as every year, he does not understand, was “misunderstood”, he told his students.
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What we know
In early October, Samuel Paty showed his students a caricature of Muhammad as part of a civic education class dedicated to freedom of expression. He had suggested to the students that it might be awkward not to look.
According to Rodrigo Arenas, co-president of the FCPE, the first association of parents of pupils, this course had made “a father extremely angry”. We learn a few days later that the man’s daughter did not attend the course in question: she had been excluded two days the day before for other reasons.
As for the cartoons, he did it “every year,” says 15-year-old Virginia, who has known the teacher. “It was on the agenda for the EMC (moral and civic education), it was to talk about freedom in relation to the attack on Charlie Hebdo, he showed these images, the caricatures “, affirms the young girl, specifying that this year,” it took more magnitude “.
“He did not do this to create controversy or to disrespect children or to discriminate,” said another father of a student, 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.
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Especially, the young girl whose father accuses him did not attend the course in question … Alas, his boss supports him, he files a complaint, the affair seems to settle down a bit.
The All Saints holidays will allow him to change his mind. But in recent days, Samuel Paty has all the same changed his way back home: for two weeks, he no longer spent feeding a neighbor’s horse, in a nearby field, as he did regularly, sometimes with his son.
In vain: this Friday, October 16, a terrorist barely 18 years old assassinates and beheads him, between the college and his apartment. In death, the discreet “Monsieur Paty”, who wanted to illustrate freedom of expression by showing caricatures, despite himself became a martyr for freedom of expression and the Republic.
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Samuel Paty embodied the Republic in its most noble: his school.
He was cowardly murdered by the enemies of freedom.
We will be united, firm and resolute: pic.twitter.com/gKtDoX4LpV– Jean-Michel Blanquer (@jmblanquer) October 17, 2020
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In tune with the students and colleagues, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer paid tribute to the teacher, who “embodied the Republic in what it has most noble: its school.”
As for little Gabriel, now fatherless, he will become a ward of the Nation.
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— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 21, 2020
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A tribute from the Nation is paid this Wednesday evening to Samuel Paty, posthumously decorated with the Legion of Honor and made Commander of the Academic Palms.
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