The French government announced this Wednesday its new plan against bullying, a “general mobilization” after a series of suicides among minors highlighted the urgent situation in the educational system.
“Being insulted, excluded, pushed or even attacked is something that no adult would endure.” For this reason, “mobilization must be general,” declared Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the beginning of the presentation of the plan.
France raised the fight against bullying as an “absolute priority”, and the series of suicides of minors, the most recent a few weeks ago, in addition to the change of minister in July gave it new impetus.
The “great prevention campaign” planned in September by the previous head of Education, Pap Ndiaye, was thus transformed into a broader fight plan led by his successor, Gabriel Attal.
“We asked for an electroshock, and I see that the electroshock has begun,” this ambitious minister, one of the ruling party’s heavyweights, declared before Parliament on Tuesday.
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“I will stop at nothing to make shame change sides,” exclaimed the minister at the head of the educational system, which currently accommodates 12 million students.
On Wednesday, Attal stated that in recent weeks there has been a “tsunami of testimonies”, three times more than in September 2022.
This increase coincided with the suicide of 15-year-old Nicolas on September 5, months after he complained of being bullied at his previous school in Poissy, about 20 km west of Paris.
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We must re-establish humane treatment at all levels to manage these harassment situations
The case transcended not only because of the tragedy, but also because of the controversial actions of the educational authorities, who responded with a threatening letter to the complaints of the teenager and his parents, reminding that slander is a crime.
The scandal outraged the government and revealed that there could be more problematic letters, the minister indicated on Monday, after meeting with the head of the educational administration involved.
“We must re-establish humane treatment at all levels to manage these harassment situations,” he added.
His statements, however, contrast with the situation experienced at the beginning of last week, when a teenager, suspected of harassing a trans student, was arrested in front of his classmates in the middle of class in the southeast of Paris.
The action was criticized as excessive, but President Emmanuel Macron’s government said it was necessary to send a “very strong message” to the harassers.
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How will the plan work?
Several measures were already implemented during the summer, such as the possibility of changing the bullying student to another school, or to sanction the perpetrators of cyberbullying towards students from other centers.
To reinforce the arsenal, the plan announced this Wednesday foresees strengthening the training “of all actors in the educational community”, but also of “the security forces” and justice workers.
Being insulted, excluded, pushed or even attacked is something that no adult would tolerate.
This Wednesday, The government proposed allowing the exclusion of harassers from social networks, confiscate their phone, or, in judicial matters, “systematically” notify the prosecutor in the event of a harassment complaint.
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For his part, Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced that he wants to generalize “empathy classes” during school hours from 2024.a concept practiced for example in Denmark.
At a preventive level, the minister Borne announced the reinforcement of the training of educational employees, as well as the security forces and justice workers.
However, school staff claim that lack of resources is one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against bullying.
Since 2022, the French education system has been experiencing a recruitment crisis. This September, a few days before the start of the course, more than 3,100 teaching positions were unfilled.
“The small number of medico-social personnel and the numerous positions still vacant do not facilitate the detection and monitoring of these situations,” wrote the general secretary of the main school directors’ union SNPDEN-Unsa, Bruno Bobkiewicz, last week.
For their part, Jean-Pierre Bellon and Marie Quartier, members of the anti-bullying expert committee of the French Ministry of Education, had been “surprised” at the absence of references by Attal to the previous government anti-bullying program.
“Before creating a new fighting plan, let’s apply what has already been put in place,” recently estimated in a column published by the newspaper Le Figaro, criticizing the partial application of the pre-existing program.
AFP
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