French school head resigns over veil row and death threats

PARIS: There is indignation in France after the headteacher of a Paris school resigned because of fears for his life.

The head was sent death threats after he insisted that a teenage girl remove her Islamic head-covering inside the school, in accordance with French law.

His name has not been made public. Two people, who had no link with the school, have been detained.

The Islamist threat to French schools is taken extremely seriously since the murders of two teachers.

The Paris school headteacher announced his decision in an email sent on Friday to colleagues at the Maurice Ravel Lycée in the 20th district of Paris.

“I have finally taken the decision to quit my functions,” he explained, “out of concern for my own safety and that of the establishment.”

“I leave after seven years, rich and intense, spent at your side, and after 45 years in public education,” he wrote, thanking his colleagues for the support they had shown him over the past three weeks.

In the incident, which took place on 28 February, the head told three female pupils they should obey the law by removing their head coverings.

Two complied, but the third did not and there was an altercation. In the days that followed, the head was the object of death threats on social media, which were signalled by the school to an interior ministry hotline.