Gabriel Attal wants a generalization of “call buttons” after a survey showing the need to strengthen the security of educational establishments

2023-11-09 16:49:41

Since the attack which left one person, Dominique Bernard, dead and three injured in a school campus in Arras on October 13, the educational community has been impatiently awaiting answers regarding the security of schools, colleges and high schools. The Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, launched a “flash survey” after the tragedy in order to have an inventory of the equipment and in recent weeks consulted the national education staff unions as well as the associations of local elected officials to propose measures.

Thursday, November 9, the tenant of Rue de Grenelle declared on RTL that the installation of “call buttons” was “the solution we should want in all establishments”. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, had already mentioned on Monday, on France Inter, this measure allowing “notify the police immediately”.

National education has not made public the results of the audit on the security of school buildings but, according to Régions de France, the latter showed that almost no establishment had an alert system directly linked to the forces. of the order. It also emerges that, eight years after the creation of specific security plans, which describe the action to be taken in the event of an intrusion, almost a quarter of educational establishments do not have “not yet an alarm specifically dedicated to the confinement of students” in these situations.

Weakened fences and doors without locks

This is particularly the case for a majority of primary schools. “If someone enters the school, the only way for us to be alerted is the “emergency” WhatsApp group which brings together the teachers, and obviously we don’t look at our phones all the time in class”summarizes for example a teacher from Poissy (Yvelines), on condition of anonymity.

Also read the decryption: Article reserved for our subscribers After the Arras attack, the security of educational establishments once again in question

According to Frédéric Leturque, co-chair of the education commission of the Association of Mayors of France, the ministry’s investigation also concludes that approximately half of the country’s establishments are insufficiently secure and, again, primarily schools. . “The situations are very disparate and even schools that are secure will have to invest to go further, there is a way to go”, admits the one who is also mayor (The Centrists) of Arras. Teachers and their representatives indeed testify to numerous cases of existing but dysfunctional alarms, broken gates, or gates which close too slowly, weakened fences, doors sometimes without locks, windows impossible to close… So much equipment which would require intervention.

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