France: Just Another Day in a French School

I remember about 25 years ago reading an article concerning education in which the author related a conversation he was having with a high-ranking education official in Paris. The official told the author that on any day, at any hour, he knew exactly what subject was being taught in every public school in France. The theme of the article was that such top-down centralized control of education was a bad thing, a topic we are having today in regard to our own Department of Education and President Trump’s attempt to disband it.

None of which has anything to do with the below article from the French site, Valeurs Actuelles. It’s just a lead-in to the state of affairs in France. That’s because virtually every day, like clockwork, students, teachers, and anyone else present on a school campus are being assaulted, threatened, or otherwise injured by the usual suspects. Generally, the weapon of choice in France seems to be the knife. 

So it was earlier today at a school in the northern French town of Auby when two female students were accosted and threatened with a knife and sprayed with tear gas by three male students, whom the Valeurs Actuelle described in the most insensitive of manner as, “North African types“. (They were probably quoting somebody else.)

North: Two (female) students attacked at knifepoint by three (male) students in Auby

One of the arrested suspects placed a knife to the throat of one of the victims, none of whom were injured.

By Valeurs Actuelles.com

Posted 17 March 2025 at 21:55 

Three male students attacked two female students without apparent reason in Auby in the north during a noon break, on Monday, 17 March, according to our information. They were arrested and placed in custody.

The perpetrators also sprayed the adolescents with tear gas. A professor intervened, then the school principal, (who was) alerted, called the police. The knife and the tear gas canister were found on the male students.

The two victims were not injured. The three suspects, of “North African type” were arrested, transported to the Douai police station, and placed in custody, a police source indicates. An investigation has been opened.