What can be done to break the
“endemic violence in educational establishments”
to which National Education staff are victims?
On Wednesday, senators François-Noël Buffet (LR) and Laurent Lafon (Centrist Union) presented their recommendations to try to stem this scourge.
The latter come from the report of a parliamentary commission of inquiry created after the assassination of Samuel Paty, professor beheaded by an Islamist terrorist in October 2020 as he left the Yvelines establishment where he taught history and geography.
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One of the 38 avenues put on the table proposes to
“make automatic”
the granting of functional protection for
“agents of the educational community”
who are victims of violence or insults from students, parents or third party.
This protection could be withdrawn
“at a later stage”
, suggest the two co-rapporteurs.
A bill along these lines will be tabled at the Luxembourg Palace soon, François-Noël Buffet announced in Le
Figaro
.
Requests increasing by 15% in 2022
This system, governed by the General Civil Service Code, provides that any
“public agent benefits (...) from protection organized by the public community which employs him on the date of the facts in question or the facts having been imputed in a defamatory manner
.
The civil servant can request it himself or be granted it directly by his administration which deems manifest
“the existence of a risk of serious harm to the physical integrity”
of his agent.
These measures range from reimbursement of lawyer fees to medical care and compensation for bodily or moral injury.
In 2022, 4,085 agents under the supervision of the Ministries of Education, Sports and Higher Education requested it, according to a report from rue de Grenelle published in December.
A figure increasing by 15% compared to 2021. The number of grants remained stable (76%), for a cost of 1.1 million euros.
Secondary school teachers (middle and high school) are the most numerous to have requested it (34%).
To a lesser extent, these requests come from medical-social staff, teacher-researchers or inspection staff.
The parents, the main perpetrators
In more than eight out of ten cases, the reason for the request is an attack on the integrity of the civil servant.
The latter can be moral (61%) - which includes acts of public threats or defamation -, physical (8%) or acts of harassment (10%).
More than 40% of them are the
“legal representatives”
of students, such as their parents, who are the perpetrators.
Pupils and students are involved in a quarter of the actions, at the same level as ministry agents.
The automaticity of its granting has been demanded for several years by the national education staff unions.
“The standard must be granting
,” maintains Jean-Rémi Girard, president of the national union of high schools and colleges (Snalc), who already made this demand at the Grenelle de l’Éducation, in 2021.
Symbolically, this would show that the institution is behind the teachers and staff.
Obviously, if the request for functional protection turns out to be far-fetched or false, it should be withdrawn.”
From the classroom to Google reviews
The violence faced by National Education staff is not confined to classrooms.
“We have more and more teachers who are degraded on the internet, in Facebook groups or Google reviews
,” laments Thierry Pajot, president of the Union of School Directors (S2Dé).
Before being killed, Samuel Paty was thrown out into the open on social networks, notably by the father of a schoolgirl who claimed to have attended the class during which the teacher had shown caricatures of Mohammed and by the sulphurous Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui .
The professor, who knew he was in danger, had not, however, benefited from any particular protection.
“We are therefore entirely in favor of this future bill,”
adds Thierry Pajot.
Beyond the symbol, the automatic granting of functional protection would make it possible to fight against refusals of attribution, caused by the absence of a response from the administration within two months (29%) or because the facts are not established (27%).
“We sometimes sense a desire among hierarchies to play on the
“no wave”
.
The risks can be reduced while teachers are exposed
,” estimates Gwen Le Paih, deputy general secretary of Snes-FSU.
“In addition, this would prevent staff from finding themselves in an administrative labyrinth
,” adds Jean-Rémi Girard.
The unions thus do not give discharge to the senatorial designs.
“Will this protection be given automatically if the complaint is against the hierarchy?”
asks Thierry Pajot doubtfully.
“Behind all this, the issue is above all that of proportionality and the relevance of the responses provided
,” concludes Gwen Le Paih.