A JEWISH French history teacher has said she was suspended for spending too much time teaching her pupils about the Holocaust and organising trips to Nazi death camps.
Catherine Pederzoli (58), from the eastern city of Nancy, said she had been suspended for four months by the department of education for what it claimed were breaches of her obligation to be “neutral and secular” in the classroom.
A report compiled by inspectors last month alleged the teacher took up too much time preparing pupils for school trips to Nazi death camps in Poland and the Czech Republic. The document accused Ms Pederzoli of "lacking distance, neutrality and secularism", according to Le Figaro.
The teacher’s lawyer, Christine Tadic, said Ms Pederzoli had been organising trips to both countries for her students for 15 years before she found herself unfairly targeted by a new school management team that arrived in 2007. “If this teacher had been a Christian, no one would have accused her of brain-washing,” Ms Tadic said. “Isn’t it the case that this teacher’s fault is to have been Jewish?”
In 2009, Ms Pederzoli made plans to bring 144 pupils to the sites of Nazi death camps in central Europe. According to the regional paper L'Est Républicain, the school's authorities objected to the size of the group because of the cost and gave permission for just 80 pupils to make the trip.
That decision provoked anger among some students, who staged a protest during a visit to the Henri-Loritz secondary school by education minister Luc Chatel. The school’s authorities suspected Ms Pederzoli of inciting the protest and instigated an inquiry.
“My private life is being besmirched and it’s being said that I manipulated my pupils. It’s very serious,” Ms Pederzoli said yesterday. “Perhaps I have a passionate nature, but I was never aggressive. I hold my head high. I never committed any error and I feel I’m not at all guilty.”
In a statement, the local schools authority said it had sought the inquiry as a result of problems related to the organising of trips and it had nothing to do with the teaching of the Holocaust, a central part of the curriculum. The teacher would continue to receive her salary during her suspension.
Ms Pederzoli’s lawyer lodged a complaint yesterday seeking an injunction to annul the suspension. Judges have two weeks to make a ruling.