Published on Sep 26, 2023 at 6:29 p.m.Updated September 26, 2023 at 6:46 p.m.
For the second time in a week, two teenagers were arrested this Tuesday for harment in their principal’s office (in La Roche-sur-Yon). Police officers inside a high school: controversy guaranteed? Well, make no mistake, not a shadow of a debate, no one is upset, the old reflexes are forgotten because the expectation of authority is so strong.
Since June, school bullying has burst into politics. “Absolute priority” for Elisabeth Borne, who presents a plan this Wednesday. “This scourge kills,” says Gabriel Attal to the embly. LR wants a commission of inquiry.
Does my child bully?
It all begins, as it often does, with a striking news item: the suicide of young Lindsay in June, and with the misstep of a minister, Pap Ndiaye, who cannot find the words in front of his parents. Indignation. The subject becomes media. Politicians are opening their eyes. The problem has changed in nature: with cell phones, young people are not only victimized at school, they are victimized all the time, 24 hours a day. The parents no longer have any control, the teachers no longer have any control.
The government is tackling the problem. There are not that many subjects likely to find an echo in public opinion. Words are asked. “It’s a shame,” said Gabriel Attal when the incomprehensible letter of the rectorate of Versailles. Speech is freed, as it was freed at the time of MeToo. On social networks with the hashtag #harcelementscolaire, on the 3020 telephone platform, at the Ministry of Education, which has received six times more letters over the past two weeks. A million young people would be affected, says Matignon.
All aspects of the problem will be addressed. Training of authorities speaking out (teachers, police officers, etc.), as was done for violence against women, dedicated teams in rectorates, confiscated telephones, digital curfew, criminal response, even kindness courses as in Denmark. Families and victims will be helped, but more innovatively, the families of harers will be made to take responsibility.
“Every parent will have to ask themselves the question: “Is my child a bully?” “and act accordingly,” says one advisor. Already since the summer, it is no longer the child victims who change school but the child bullies . “Fear must change sides.” Or how, for once, the politician very quickly seized upon a fact gnawing at society. “When children are involved, then there is not a second of hesitation to be had,” notes an advisor. “It is in our flesh that we are affected.”