Hundreds of bomb threats paralyze French schools – Minister responds Violent gusts hit armchairs in Cervinia (IT) near Zermatt

Hundreds of bomb threats against schools and the case of a Parisian school director who was threatened with death and then resigned have been causing uproar in France for days. To support teaching staff and put an end to the wave of anonymous threats, Education Minister Nicole Belloubet announced a government crackdown on Friday.

“Faced with threats, the state stands by your side and will never abandon you. Everything is being done to guarantee your safety and that of the schools,” Belloubet explains.

“I will set up a national mobile school force that can be deployed to schools with problems,” the minister said in Bordeaux. Ministry officials must be able to support teachers and be sent to a school for a longer period of time.

Blocking the chat function

At the same time, Belloubet announced a temporary blocking of the messenger function on the schools’ communication platform that is used nationally. Many of the threats came through hacked student and teacher accounts; in addition to attack threats, beheading videos were also sent. In many cases, schools were evacuated and police searched them for explosives.

A 17-year-old was arrested on Thursday, who police suspect sent a series of threatening messages and a beheading video to schools via the platform. He was still in police custody on Friday, broadcaster France Info reported, citing investigators. According to the ministry, there have been 340 threats against schools since the middle of last week, as the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported.

As with a similar wave of threats last fall, authorities suspect that young people in particular do not have terrorist or political aspirations. All threats have so far proven unfounded. Just as in the autumn, regional airports are now also affected, resulting in temporary evacuations.

Death threat after dispute over headscarf

The case of the Parisian school principal, who insisted that a student remove her headscarf at school in accordance with regulations in force in France, has a very different background. The incident led to arguments and death threats against a high school principal, who subsequently resigned a few months before his upcoming retirement. Many politicians reacted with outrage to the threats against the school director, which were received by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

The headscarf ban in French schools was introduced twenty years ago, in March 2004. This was preceded by a years-long dispute over head coverings in France, which was based on secularism, that is, the strict separation between state and religion. However, the conflict over the headscarf and the ban on religious symbols in schools continues. (sda/dpa)