![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78842513-12852075-image-m-4_1702331805135.jpg\")
<\/p>\nReligious fury sparked a crisis in French schooling last night after Muslim parents complained that a 17th century Renaissance painting of nude women was shown to a class of pupils.<\/p>\n
Staff members at Jacques Cartier in Issou, west of Paris, refused to work on Monday amid the crisis sparked by the showing in class of a painting by a Renaissance master containing several nude women.<\/p>\n
Education Minister Gabriel Attal visite the establishment in person on Monday and later said pupils who made false claims about the teacher in posts on social media would be disciplined.<\/p>\n
It comes after a French court on Friday convicted six teenagers for their role in the 2020 killing of Samuel Paty outside his secondary school near Paris, after they helped to identify him to a radicalised Islamist.<\/p>\n
Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was stabbed and beheaded in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in October 2020, just 12 miles from Issou.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Jacques Cartier school in Issou is at the centre of a row after a teacher showed a 17th century nude painting to children<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/22\/78842521-12852075-image-m-6_1702332074200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A sign hung outside the school claimed that incidents at the school were up while resources to deal with them were in short supply<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78841777-12852075-image-a-6_1702330901490.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
‘Diana and Actaeon’ (pictured) by the Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari, portrays a Greek myth in which the hunter Actaeon bursts in at a site where the goddess Diana and her nymphs are bathing<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/22\/78842787-12852075-image-a-7_1702332139418.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
French education minister Gabriel Attal said those who made false claims about the teacher in question would be punished<\/p>\n
Teachers there are now worried they too could be attacked, The Times reports.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, ‘during a French class, a colleague showed a 17th-century painting that showed naked women’, said Sophie Venetitay, secretary general of the Snes-FSU secondary school teachers’ union.<\/p>\n
The name of the female teacher and false claims that she had made racist remarks to Muslim students were subsequently circulated on social media, according to reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The school\u00a0reportedly logged 10 incidents of discrimination or racism in the school term this year, according to French broadcaster BFM TV.<\/p>\n
In reference to the furore,\u00a0Venetitay told the channel: ‘We know well that methods like that can lead to a tragedy… We saw it in the murder of Samuel Paty. Our colleagues feel threatened and in danger.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
The painting, ‘Diana and Actaeon’ by the Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari, portrays a Greek myth in which the hunter Actaeon bursts in at a site where the goddess Diana and her nymphs are bathing.<\/p>\n
The work, which shows a naked Diana and four female companions, is held at the Louvre museum in Paris.<\/p>\n
It was reportedly shown during an art class for students aged 12 and 13.<\/p>\n
‘Some students averted their gaze, felt offended, said they were shocked,’ Venetitay said, adding that ‘some also alleged the teacher made racist comments’ during a class discussion.<\/p>\n
A pupil’s parent sent an email to the school director saying that his son was prevented from speaking during that discussion and that he would file a complaint, she said.<\/p>\n
She said it was the ‘final straw’ for teachers at the school, who had complained of a ‘very degraded climate’ as well as a ‘lack of support’ from management despite ‘several alerts’.<\/p>\n
In an email sent to parents on Friday, teachers said they were exercising their right to stay away from classrooms over the ‘particularly difficult situation’ at the high school.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78733231-12852075-History_and_geography_teacher_Samuel_Paty_47_was_decapitated_out-a-1_1702331016010.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
History and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was decapitated outside a school near Paris<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78732625-12852075-Pedestrians_pass_by_a_poster_depicting_French_teacher_Samuel_Pat-a-2_1702330521078.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pedestrians pass by a poster depicting French teacher Samuel Paty on November 3, 2020, following the decapitation of the teacher on October 16<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78733129-12852075-Paty_was_violently_stabbed_to_death_and_then_decapitated_by_18_y-a-3_1702330524175.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Paty was violently stabbed to death and then decapitated by 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoullakh Anzorov on October 16, 2020<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78841605-12852075-image-a-5_1702330567158.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A photograph taken on October 16, 2023 shows a commemorative plaque for slain teacher Samuel Paty\u00a0 near the Bois d’Aulne school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, outside Paris<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/21\/78842449-12852075-image-a-2_1702331547195.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Paty’s death sparked a large demonstration in Paris by advocates for freedom of speech<\/p>\n
They described ‘palpable discomfort’ and ‘an increase in cases of violence’ as their daily reality.<\/p>\n
Attal said that a disciplinary procedure would be launched ‘against the students who are responsible for this situation and who have also admitted the facts’.<\/p>\n
A team would also be deployed to the school to ensure it adhered to the ‘values of the republic’, he said.<\/p>\n
The tensions come after a series of attacks against teachers in recent years.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Samuel Paty was murdered after messages spread on social media that Paty had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.<\/p>\n
And in October, another radicalised Islamist stabbed his former teacher Dominique Bernard to death in the northern town of Arras.<\/p>\n