“No, Samuel is not responsible for his death.” The memory of a respected professor at the Sorbonne

Black clothes, white gloves; seven college students take the stage. A young girl’s right hand is raised, then her left, in front of a crowd gathered in the Sorbonne’s Richelieu amphitheater to receive the first Samuel Paty prize. Pause… before the enchanting ballet. Pupils translate a poem by singer Gowen Sears into sign language to pay tribute to a teacher who was killed outside his college on October 16, 2020 by an Islamist terrorist in Conflans-Saint-Honorin (Yvelines). At the end of the choreography, there is some clapping, which is quickly replaced by silent applause in sign language.

These students from Collège Gaston-Bachelard in Dijon (Côte d’Or) won third place for the 2022 Samuel Paty Prize, which focused on the theme “We are still free to express ourselves.” Organized by the Association of Teachers of History and Geography (APHG), this competition saw entries from around forty…