It all started with the distribution of a poster.
This announced several workshops, on the occasion of a “Week of Equality”, from March 6 to 10, within the Institution Saint Joseph du Moncel, in Pont-Sainte-Maxence (Oise).
On the program: “ discovery and awareness
” workshops
, offered outside of class hours, around “
sexism in the language
”, “
gender identity
and sexual orientation
” or even on “
gender stereotypes
”.
For the day of March 8, a treasure hunt around the theme "
Looking for women
" was organized in the morning while debates on "
consent
", "
street
harassment
or “
domestic violence
” were to take place in the afternoon.
Among these different items, it is the discovery of the “
LGBTQIA+
” themes (abbreviation which designates the community of homosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex or asexual people) which generated a wave of reactions.
Shortly after its publication, this poster quickly caused controversy on social networks, the association Parents Vigilants (organization attached to Reconquest) seizing the story.
On Twitter, Julie Roussel, its representative in the Oise then denounces a “
week of propaganda
”.
Alerted by his diocesan director and by the requests of the association, the director finally decided to postpone this week.
"Subjects that have no place in school"
"
I gave my agreement in principle for this week of equality, starting from the idea that it was a question of talking about everything that can revolve around republican equality
", explains to
Figaro
, Philippe Chodorge, the director of the Institution.
"
I had not been informed of the details beforehand by the teacher who organized the workshops
", continues the school director.
“
It was the diocesan director who told me that the poster was circulating on the internet, and so I decided to postpone the week because I was seized by the poster
”.
And it is a parent of a student, non-member of the association, who decided to turn to the Parents Vigilants association by sharing the photo taken by his child within the establishment.
“
The student's parent
confirmed to us that she had already written to the establishment and that nothing had been done
,” underlines Julie Roussel.
“
So we went to ask the parents directly what they thought when they left the establishment
,” she explains, immediately emphasizing their incomprehension.
The latter “
had not been informed
” of the course of these workshops.
Read also“I preferred to cheat so that my daughter would be in a good audience”: these parents ready to do anything to avoid their neighborhood school
But why do these workshops pose?
"
There are topics that should be addressed in the context of civic education because they are important (gender equality, women's rights, harassment) but others have no place in school
”, argues association representative Julie Roussel, pointing in particular to LGBTQIA+ themes.
"
It's an intimate subject and they are already persecuted enough in everyday life
, she breathes,
we have to leave them alone
".
According to Julie Roussel, the problem also comes from the age of the students involved in the workshops, who are between 11 and 15 years old.
“
They are in school to learn maths and French, and not so that
".
On social networks, the debate has heated up: some critics of the association have described its members as "
homophobes
" or "
religious fundamentalists
".
“A kick in the anthill”
“
I was not under any pressure to cancel this week
”, assures the director of the establishment.
"
I took up this case after seeing the content of the workshops because the
Catholic school
has an educational project
", explains the director, invoking the principle of "
enlightened freedom
".
"
We are obviously waiting for a word on these subjects which cross society and which are complex
", he explains, insisting on his rejection of "
any form of obscurantism
".
But, it must be a "
constructed word
“, explains the one who spoke with the professor at the origin of these workshops, and who, given the controversy generated on social networks and the arguments put forward by the association, “has completely understood
”
, he explains.
For the spokesperson for Parents Vigilants, Agnès Marion, this situation above all reveals a desire on the part of parents to regain control of what is taught to children at school.
"Many parents feel helpless when they are shocked by a teaching which, according to them, has no place in school
", she explains,
"Parents Vigilant
s
responded to a real demand because the parents were silent in front of the wall of the school institution and above all did not want, by complaining, that their child be stigmatized
”.
"
Our philosophy is to say that the school is there to teach
," says Agnès Marion.
“
Children are supposed to arrive at benevolence precisely because they have learned to think, and not because some propaganda tells them to
,” she continues.
"
We take up the sentence of Jean Zay: schools must remain the inviolable asylum where the quarrels of men do not penetrate
".
However, “
all the struggles which deconstruct the social bond in France, settle in school
”, she abounds.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/MG6G7DJUBNBLRNE2DSTK4WZYTY.jpg)
