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They are barely adults, between 18 and 19 years old, yet they carry a heavy responsibility on their shoulders. That of presenting their book Génération Paty. The trial: young people face history, written during the trial of the professor's assassination. A speech in a place full of symbols and emotions, the same college where Samuel Paty taught, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yveline). A France Télévisions team was authorized to pass through the doors for the first time since the tragic attack which cost the life of the history professor.
“Being here, where the events took place, is something quite gripping,” says a young member of the Génération Paty project. And Fousseny Bamba, also a member, adds: "It's true that when we arrive, it's a bit of a shock to realize that it's here that everything happened. It's hard to visualize, it's hard to realize."
A speech in front of current college students
The three young people we followed spoke in front of a third grade class. In 2025, they experienced the trial of the terrorist's accomplices from the inside and therefore shared with those younger than them the hours of intense hearings they attended.
"It was a timeless experience. There were soldiers everywhere, police officers. There was the judge. We have the accused who are in a glass cage. It's super impressive, we felt very small," Anna Simon tells them, also part of the project dedicated to Samuel Paty.
They were also able to recall their vision of the attack, as Fousseny Bamba explains: "It is to understand that it was not just an assassination, that it was an attack on our freedom of expression. That is to say the right of everyone to think, to believe, not to believe, to express themselves."
The elements which led to the death of Samuel Paty
On October 16, 2020, Samuel Paty was beheaded 300 meters from his college by a terrorist. Very quickly, the attacker was spotted by the police, who ordered him to surrender. The man refused and was later shot. At the origin of this drama lies an infernal spiral which was partly played out within the establishment itself.
A student initially lied to her parents about the lesson on the caricatures of Mohammed shown by the teacher. The rumor then spread among the students, falsely accusing the teacher of being racist and spreading on social networks. Then adults exploited the conflict and college students agreed, for a few hundred euros, to name Samuel Paty as the assassin.
Encourage reflection among middle school students
The third grade students gathered during our visit are the same age as their elders who came to speak to them, who had been caught in the heart of the turmoil at the time. It was thus an opportunity to encourage them to think, particularly on the question of the study of caricatures. “For me, we should keep them on the program because otherwise it would mean that we will have given in to the threats and what happened with Mr. Paty,” said a schoolboy. And one of his comrades took over, on the subject of the spread of rumors: “A rumor, we now know, can spread quite quickly and can be very difficult to stop.”
“Does it scare you to see this violence intruding into the school? Who has felt fear?” Anna Simon then asked them. Half of the hands went up in response to this question. And the young adult continued: “Feel legitimate, you are all justified in feeling pain, anger, incomprehension, fear, trauma.”
The teachers in turn testify
These exchanges are also a good time to break down barriers. The students thus asked themselves a question that they had never dared to ask their teacher, already in office the year of the attack: “How did you experience the assassination of Samuel Paty?”
"It was the shock, the astonishment. And little by little, I had to admit that it was a trauma in my personal life too, to learn that our students were able to denounce it. It was a second shock. Despite everything, I had a compulsive need to be here, to find meaning, otherwise nothing had any more", responded Claire Loyau, literature professor at Samuel Paty college.
A project composed by 200 high school students
Behind the book Génération Paty are in reality 200 young people from seven final year classes. Thanks to the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AfVT), they attended the trial of the attack and wrote a legal chronicle. Each day of hearing was summarized and drawn.
At the end of the book, a question was asked of all these young people: are they the Paty generation? Many answer yes, but some have a darker vision, like Laëlle Abalain Pommier: "I don't think we are the Paty generation today. Unfortunately, I think we are more the 'attack generation'. We were born with it, we grow up with it and I think we will continue to live with it."
But for the adults who accompanied this adventure, we see a glimmer of hope. “The teacher-student bond, which had been cruelly damaged by the assassination of our colleague Samuel Paty, has been in some way repaired. That's what the teachers say, they all say it,” assures Chantal Anglade, head of the AfVT. After this significant project, many young people chose law school or political science. This new generation is determined to engage in the fight against terrorist barbarity.
