French High School Students Support Religious Symbols in Schools, Poll Finds

This survey conducted by IFOP focused on the perception of secularism among high school students. It is a study commissioned by LICRA and the magazine "Droit de vivre". 49% of the 1,006 young people who were approached believe that the newspapers were right to publish the Charlie Hebdo caricatures, compared to 27% who judged it to be a mistake. 61% of young people consider that Samuel Paty was also right to show these caricatures to his students.

It is at the level of wearing religious symbols that the results have been the most interesting. 52% of young people are opposed to the right to blasphemy. 57% of the surveyed high school students believe that parents accompanying students on school outings have the right to wear religious symbols. 52% even consider that high school students have the right to wear these symbols within the school premises and 49% for middle school students. 50% of them believe that civil servants have the right to wear religious symbols within the administration, reports Le Parisien.

For François Kraus, director of the politics-news department at Ifop, these results are living proof that "the youth enrolled in high school has an inclusive vision of secularism. For them, there is no anti-clerical dimension aimed at relegating religion to the private sphere. It is rather a concept that must put religions on an equal footing, a kind of Anglo-Saxon vision," he said.