‘School must be a safe haven, without influences from religion, companies or politics’

At the Parisian secondary school for glass art Lucas de Nehou there is no room for religion, but all the more for it laïcité – the separation of church and state. Throughout the classic school building, students’ works of art on this theme can be found: a colorful glass tree, a mirror with the text: ‘laïcitémy freedom’. A glass-decorated ‘charter’ with the rules hangs at the entrance.

In front of the office of lecturer Mahi Traoré (52) is a portrait of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was murdered by an Islamic terrorist in 2020 – an event that sparked the debate about laïcité revived. This week, the trial over the murder ended, prompting Traoré to look back at its impact on French schools. She should know: she has been a principal at Lucas de Nehou for five years, and before that she worked at seventeen other schools in and around Paris. She wrote down her experiences Moi, provisioner (I, the rectrix), that this autumn appeared.

You write that since 2001 you have seen that students wear religious clothing more often and form groups based on origin. How do you deal with that?

“Students have become more identified. I once saw a group of North African girls standing together in the schoolyard, a group of black girls and a group of boys. I get that: when I started at the white university Sorbonne, I initially gravitated towards other black students as well. But it can lead to communalismwhere students remain in their own communities. And I believe in that mixed school: at school you should bring together students with different backgrounds, knowledge levels and interests as much as possible.

“I went to the group of black girls and asked: where are you from? They said they came from Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Senegal, Chad. But you were born here, I asked. Vous êtes françaises! With this I say that they are fully-fledged French and I encourage them to think about their identity, which is made up of all different layers and does not only consist of the country where their roots lie.”

But we live in a time when people of color are often told: you are not really French.

“They are not wrong to feel this way. It is a society-wide problem. We must ensure that everyone has a sense of belonging. To do this, we must stop the brutal racism of saying that part of the population is only French on paper.”

In France, laïcité applies in public schools, which means, among other things, that students are not allowed to wear headscarves, yarmulkes and crosses. Why is that important?

“School must be a safe haven, without influences from religion, companies or politics. Laïcité protects us and the students against this, allowing us to better focus on what we are at school for: transferring knowledge.”

What do you do if students do wear religious signs?

“Explain why laïcité is important and what the precise rules are. You are also not allowed to wear a headscarf during class outings. When a student resisted this, I started talking to her and her parents. The mother was very willing to cooperate. And then the student saw that the school, her fellow students and her parents all agreed on the importance of a strict laïcité.

“It also helps if there are clear rules. School principals are therefore pleased that the government last school year [Arabische jurk] abaya has banned. This means that it is no longer up to us to determine whether a piece of clothing is religious, but we can simply refer to the law. We will discuss further laïcité not one day a year or only when there is an incident. We talk about it all year long.”

Many students experience that the measures are mainly aimed at Muslims. How do you deal with that?

“If someone wears a huge cross, it must absolutely be taken down. Furthermore, you should not forbid people to speak, or immediately say: what you say is untrue. I listen to my students and invite them to think about what laïcité is, about how it protects our fundamental freedoms and helps us live together.”

In her book, Traoré describes an incident from 2017. Her then school served as a final exam location, where students from all kinds of schools took their exams and the laïcitérules did not apply. Traore checked the gloves and headscarves of a number of students on cheat sheets, after which one of them wrote on Twitter that she had been “roughly searched” – a lie, according to Traoré. The media picked it up and a storm of criticism arose online.

How did you restore peace?

“I immediately invited the parents for an interview. Then it turned out that there was an employee who had been a bit rude to those girls. When asked who that nasty search would have done, there was no response because it had not taken place. Everyone knew that after this conversation and that was the end of it.”

Your approach is different from the ‘don’t make waves’ (pas de vagues) that has long been the practice in France: teachers avoided religious and other conflicts to avoid problems. How do you explain this mentality?

“The teaching profession is tough, teachers are given more and more tasks and they are poorly paid.” The average salary of a French teacher is less than 52,000 euros per yearbelow the OECD average of more than 56,000 euros. “And our school system is very vertical. I am not even allowed to hire my own teachers: the distribution is made by the ministry. This makes many teachers feel undervalued and that they have little freedom and autonomy. I always tell my teachers: autorisez-vous. Dare to stand up for yourself, come up with ideas and speak out.

“Since Paty’s murder, it has been recognized that the pass the vaguessetting must stop. I see this, for example, in the fact that more teachers are reporting violations of the laïcité. It’s like #MeToo: we needed a shock to wake up.”

Where does your vision come from?

“I grew up in Mali. In Mali, the entire village is involved in raising a child – for example, I was corrected not only by my parents but also by the neighbor. It is a collective job. I also want to express that here. I combine the Malian village with the vertical French system.”

Paty’s murder also started with a discussion about religion, a lie from a student and posts on social media. What was that like for you?

“Paty’s murder is a 9/11 moment for teachers: everyone knows where you were when it became known. I came home from school with my son and was petrified, my blood turned to ice. Bee [de aanslag op de redactie van het satirische blad] Charlie Hebdo We were shocked too, but we knew that the editors were being threatened. It was unimaginable that a teacher could be killed.”

What has the murder specifically changed in your work?

“I won’t let anything pass me by anymore. In the past I have also received threats – a dissatisfied student would say: ‘be careful when you come out’. Now I would report it immediately – I recently reported a man who entered the school because he wanted to pee and was rude. Also any infringement of the laïcité I report.

“And after the murder of Dominique Bernard [de leraar uit het Noord-Franse Arras die in 2023 werd vermoord door een geradicaliseerde oud-leerling] I had cameras installed at the front door. And all rectors nowadays have such a box,” she says, pointing to a white box next to her desk: an emergency button that puts her in direct contact with the police. “We also regularly do attack exercises in the school. Samuel Paty was the first, Dominique Bernard was the second and there will be a third.”

Has nothing been learned?

“Dominique Bernard could have been murdered in his school, that is another step further. Some lessons have been learned. We saw that in the case of [de Parijse middelbare school] Maurice Revel, where my colleague had to stop working because he was seriously threatened following a lie on social media.” The headmaster of this school became earlier this year accused online of hitting a student who would not take off her headscarf and posted a message about it on social media. “The state then intervened preventively by reporting the student.”

Social media again…

“Those so-called ‘social’ media are a dumping ground for hatred and resentment and a threat to schools and our society. In the past, you only told your parents what had happened at school when you were at home, but now students send an app to their parents during the school day – who have become much more difficult anyway – or they post their grievances online. A small thing or a lie can take off enormously and end in a tragedy.”

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