The teacher took out an Opinel knife in October 2023 in front of his students in 1st grade class and declared: “If someone gets on my nerves, I am capable of hitting his head against the wall until it explodes”, before indicating to benefit from an “immunity totem”.
A history and geography teacher tried for having pulled out a knife in front of his students in October 2023 and uttering “violent” remarks, was sentenced Thursday in Le Havre to six months in prison. suspended prison sentence and a three-year teaching ban.
It’s a “breakdown, I broke down”, declared the teacher after the criminal court’s decision, adding that “the far right took me back Sorry but I’m not their hero, I’m sick, we have to fight them.”
Patrick Domenget, 52, took out an Opinel knife on October 21, 2023 in front of his students in 1st grade class and declared: “If someone gets on my nerves, I am capable of lifting a second and hit her head against the wall until it explodes”, before indicating that she benefits from an “immunity totem”.
The professor admitted “having broken down”
The defendant, often confused during the hearing, admitted to having “broke down” in the context of the Islamist attacks against teachers
The events occurred a few days after a tribute to Samuel Paty and after the assassination of Dominique Bernard. The two teachers were assassinated in Islamist attacks, Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in October 2020 and Dominique Bernard in Arras, on October 13, 2023.
The court accepted the medical reports recognizing that the teacher, “in psychological suffering for a long time”, was suffering an alteration in his judgment at the time of the facts, without abolition. Referent to secularism in his establishment, the defendant recalled the past having, according to him, led him to this “slippage”: Charlie Hebdo, Dominique Bernard, Samuel Paty, “a lot of sick leave” and his “loneliness”.
“He is not feeling right”
The deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Le Havre Philippe Antoine requested a three-month suspended sentence so as not to provide a “totem of immunity”. The teacher was prosecuted for psychological violence with a weapon and prohibited carrying of a weapon.
His lawyer, Me Antoine Siffert, reacting to his client’s conviction, regretted that the court “judges that a teacher who hits rock bottom has committed an offense”.
“He is not doing well, everyone has seen it but no one says it” at National Education, he accused during his pleading. “His wife is afraid of not seeing him come back from high school in the evening, and he is alone in front of his class to deal with that.”
The court also sentenced him to a five-year ban on carrying a weapon. He did not follow the requests of the public prosecutor’s office which requested an injunction for treatment, as also requested by several legal representatives of the students.
