In brief
A French court sentenced a man to six months in jail after he threatened a female teacher who had disciplined his son. The incident took place in Le Fauga, a small village near Toulouse. The teacher was hurt and placed under official protection, quitting work on the following Monday. French Education Minister Edouard Geffray highlighted the event as one of the first applications of new protective laws enacted this summer. The case echoes past tragedies in France, including the murder of teacher Samuel Paty.
A man has been given a six‑month jail term in France after he threatened to kill a female primary school teacher who had disciplined his son at a village primary school.
The sentencing took place at a fast‑track hearing on Thursday, six days after the events unfolded in Le Fauga, a village with a population of about 2,600 just outside the southwestern city of Toulouse.
The teacher has been granted official protection and has gone on sick leave.
French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said: “No teacher should be afraid to do their job. Attacking one of them is attacking the entire institution.”
Over the summer, the minister steered through a law aimed at protecting staff from a “significant risk” to their safety or health from a member of a student's family, and this case would trigger one of the first uses of the decree.
The case revives memories in France of the beheading of a teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans‑Sainte‑Honorine six years ago, when Samuel Paty was murdered outside his school by an 18‑year‑old Chechen refugee.
In Le Fauga, the teacher's colleagues did not go into work on Monday because of what had happened the previous Friday.
The threat was made after the man had been called in for a chat with the school, according to Toulouse education chief Karim Benmiloud.
Le Fauga Mayor Jean‑Marie Puig told BFMTV that the man's son had been disruptive in class and the teacher had sent him to another class to calm down, although he continued to misbehave.
The teacher in this class was alleged to have told the child to “stop acting like a little bully”, BFMTV reports.
She was then threatened by the father, who according to the mayor had waited for her “outside the school and apparently threatened to cut off her head if she'd been a man”.
The parent subsequently apologised, however a judicial complaint was made and he went before the prosecutor in Toulouse on Thursday afternoon.
The decree passed in July allows for a student to be transferred to another school in a case involving significant risk to staff, and where education authorities have intervened.
It is thought the boy and a younger sister may now be moved to another school outside Le Fauga.
