Eleven teachers out of 19 were on sick leave on the day of the return, while only 36 students out of 250 were present. The Georges-Bruguier school group is located in the Chemin Bas d'Avignon district in Nîmes.
The neighborhood has been plagued by drug trafficking for many months. A week before the start of the school year, a man was shot and killed near a neighborhood drugstore, a stone's throw from the school, while his eight-year-old son was in the vehicle targeted by the shots.