French schools introduce simulated terror attack drills

All French school pupils from the age of three upwards must take part in security drills involving simulated terrorist attacks, the government has said.

After 12 million children begin a new term on September 1, their schools will be required to hold three exercises a year including one based on the scenario of an attack with at least one terrorist inside the building.

Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said children would be taught how to hide and stay completely silent, and how to escape under the supervision of teachers.

In the case of nursery school children, aged three to five, teachers have been told to treat the hiding exercise as a game called ‘‘the king of silence’’. When the teacher says the words ‘‘roi du silence’’, they must not make the slightest noise for as long as possible to avoid attracting the attention of intruding attackers. Experts said that five minutes was the most that could be expected.

Extra police and troops will patrol near schools, some guards are to be recruited and millions of euros have been put aside for security cameras, secure doors and special alarms.

Some 3,000 reserve troops will also be deployed in the vicinity of schools. ‘‘Throughout the year, particular attention will be put around schools,’’ Cazeneuve said. ‘‘Active surveillance around schools, high schools and universities will be reinforced by roving patrols.’’

The threat of a terrorist attack on schools became apparent in March 2012 when an Islamist murdered three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Security was stepped up after the mass attacks of November 13 last year in Paris, in which 130 people died.

In February, the French language version of Islamic State’s propaganda magazine said that French schools had declared war on Islam because of the country’s doctrine of laicite, or secularism, in schools. The terrorist organisation called on Muslim parents to murder teachers.

Cazeneuve and Najat VallaudBelkacem, the education minister, said the aim of the measures was to make both teachers and children respond with a wellrehearsed reflex to an attack. ‘‘Anticipate, get safe, know how to react,’’ were the guiding principles. Pupils in lower secondary school would also receive basic first aid training.

‘‘This is not about ceding to panic or paranoia,’’ VallaudBelkacem said. ‘‘The threat is high, it is real.’’

The measures prompted resistance from some teachers’ unions. ‘‘It’s not a good thing to put pupils into a state of fear,’’ Francette Popineau, spokeswoman of the Snuipp-FSU union, said.

Some parents worried about children being traumatised by the drills, but the FCPE, the national school parents’ federation, said: ‘‘The children know what is going on and it is important to put into words what is being done.’’

Stephane Clerget, a child psychiatrist, said that turning the terrorist drill into a game would calm the fears of smaller children in the event of a real attack. ‘‘Playing is really what enables them to digest reality,’’ he told Europe 1 radio.