After the major business schools, Saint-Cyr and Sciences-po, it is the turn of CentraleSupélec to be at the heart of a case of sexual violence.
Explosion within the prestigious engineering school CentraleSupélec after the revelation of a hundred acts of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape over the academic year, which motivated the opening of a preliminary investigation, according to the public prosecutor's office. 'Évry.
Carried out among 2,386 students, a study commissioned by the management at the request of the association for the fight against sexism Çapèse, revealed "particularly worrying situations of gender and sexual violence", alarmed CentralSupélec on Thursday in a statement.
According to this survey, 51 women and 23 men declared having been victims of sexual harassment during the academic year 2020-2021, 46 women and 25 men of sexual assault ("a physical contact with a sexual part - buttock, sex, breasts, mouth, between the thighs - committed by violence, constraint, threat or surprise ”) and 20 women and 8 men of rape (“ an act of penetration committed by violence, constraint, threat or surprise ”).
The school administration warns the prosecution
Among the students who declared having suffered one of this violence, "nearly 9 out of 10 indicated that their attacker would be another student and that the facts would have taken place in an associative context or within the student residence", a Supélec clarified.
Read also In France, one in twenty students says they have already been a victim of rape
"Faced with the seriousness of the facts declared by the participants in this unprecedented investigation, the director of the Romain Soubeyran school decided to alert the public prosecutor of Évry in a letter", so that "additional means are considered prevention, action and support for victims, but also means of sanctioning perpetrators, ”added the school.
Following the report, the Evry prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation for acts of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape, and entrusted the investigations to specialized investigators from the Palaiseau research brigade, the public prosecutor said.
I strongly condemn acts of sexual violence at CentraleSupélec: these intolerable situations have no place in classes, in parties, or on any campus.
I address my absolute support to the victims and salute the responsibility of the establishment.
- Frédérique Vidal (@VidalFrederique) October 7, 2021
"The results of this investigation have stunned us," said the director of the school, quoted in the press release.
“If we have been involved for a long time in the fight against gender-based and sexual violence, we were far from taking the exact measure,” he added.
"The results of our questionnaire are alarming, but they seem necessary to us so that everyone becomes aware of the extent of the problem of gender-based and sexual violence in higher education," the Çapèse association said on Twitter. .
This Thursday evening, the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, condemned these revelations, deploring “intolerable situations”.
“I will speak in the next few days to announce a national action plan against sexual and gender-based violence in higher education.
My determination is flawless.
Zero tolerance, ”she wrote on Twitter.