"The role of the French school is to train republicans. I will never accept that at the Republic school we refuse to look at a painting."

Said Gabriel Attal, France's education minister, quoted in "Major row erupts in France after nude painting shown to pupils/Teachers walk out after ‘offended’ pupils at a school near Paris refused to look at Renaissance-era painting as teachers walk out" (Independent).

Sophie Venetitay, from the Snes-FSU teachers union, told the AFP news agency that several first-year high school students, aged 11 and 12, said they were offended by the work by 17th-Century Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari. She said some students had “averted their gaze”, “felt offended” and said they were “shocked”.... Ms Venetitay said staff felt they had been left feeling unsupported and working in a “degraded climate”, adding the incident reminded her of the brutal killing of Samuel Paty.Mr Paty was stabbed then beheaded near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in October 2020 after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class.

This is my second post on the subject. Here's the first. I consider this a new topic because of the quote in the post title, reflecting the distinctively strong French dedication to secularism, something I've blogged about many times in the 20-year history of this blog, beginning with 3 posts in the first year of this blog: "Enforcing strict secularism in France," "It isn't a lack of understanding of history that makes the French head scarf ban seem wrong to Americans," and "Only one slope is slippery."

"Some students averted their gaze, felt offended, said they were shocked.... some also alleged the teacher made racist comments....”

Said a teacher quoted in "Nude painting row at French school sparks teacher walkout" (BBC). 

The students were 10 to 11 years old. They were exposed to a Renaissance painting that depicts the story of Diana and Actaeon from Ovid's Metamorphoses — with 5 female nudes.

Staff felt they had been left unsupported and were working in a "degraded climate".... She said the case recalled the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, who was murdered after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class. French authorities believe untrue rumours spread about the class contributed to inciting an 18-year-old radicalised Chechen refugee to murder him close to the teacher's school in a Paris suburb....