“I want an electric shock at all levels”: Attal’s warning to rectors after Nicolas’s suicide

2023-09-19 05:10:47

It was a speech of firmness that Gabriel Attal made to the rectors this Monday, September 18 in the afternoon in Paris. A little less than two weeks after the suicide of Nicolas, 15, a student who had complained of harassment during the past school year in his establishment in Poissy (Yvelines), the Minister of National Education summoned his representatives in academies for vigorous videoconferencing.

“I want an electric shock at all levels,” said Gabriel Attal. My role is to be at your side, to give you the means to act, not to defend the indefensible. My role, your role, is not to protect an institution at all costs, but to protect our students, our children, at all costs. When there is a mistake, you must have the courage to say it and, above all, the courage to draw conclusions. »

This meeting took place two days after the revelation of the letter of “shame”, according to the minister himself, sent by the rectorate of Versailles to Nicolas’s parents before his death. A “failure” for Élisabeth Borne, the head of government who did not have harsh enough words to describe the lack of empathy of the administration, capable of threatening the parents of the young man with criminal prosecution because of their supposed vehemence.

Evaluations every year in the academies

For the government, this type of situation must not happen again. An audit was therefore launched in all rectorates to identify all situations of harassment reported over the past year. The rectors will therefore have to count the cases of harassment one by one.

“The objective is to draw consequences for the future by radically changing the way we do things when things are not going well and, obviously, to provide a response if it is still possible to these situations,” said Gabriel Attal, who expects feedback in four weeks.

Each academy is then tasked with building an action plan to “change what is not working” and, if necessary, review “its response strategy to cases of harassment”. The rectors will be in a way under supervision, since the ministry wants precise monitoring and will evaluate every year the way in which the situations in each academy will be taken into account.

Annoyed by comments denouncing “spectacle politics”

During this meeting in the form of a shoulder straps meeting, five rectors spoke and were able to discuss with the minister. Behind the scenes, few have felt the impression of being the designated culprits of poor management of school bullying, while it is the entire educational institution that has not risen to the occasion – far from there – in recent years.

For his part, Gabriel Attal hardly appreciated the comments of a rector this Monday in Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France. “It’s not to the taste of all rectors. Doing show politics on such a hot topic is not a good idea,” said one of them.

They now know that their minister wants results and that if the need arises, they can come and knock on his door. “If there is a need for additional resources to set up dedicated and trained teams in the rectorates, responsible full time for managing harassment cases, I will provide the necessary human resources,” concluded Gabriel Attal.