School violence in France: Report presents 50 recommendations to break 'culture of silence'
Three months after the start of the inquiry, the two co-rapporteurs of the committee tasked with examining state oversight and violence prevention in schools, MPs Violette Spillebout, of the presidential party Renaissance, and Paul Vannier, of the radical-left La France Insoumise, showed no intention of letting the issue be forgotten. On Wednesday, July 2, they published a report providing an unprecedented overview and analysis of violence committed by "adults in positions of authority" against children in schools.
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LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
To tackle abuses in French schools, state oversight must be strengthened
After decades of silence, the extent of violence perpetrated by adults against schoolchildren, under the guise of educational authority and sheltered within institutions shielded from outside scrutiny, has finally been revealed. Every year, thousands of children have fallen victim to these serious and institutionalized abuses, some of which are old, but not yet a thing of the past. The first achievement of the parliamentary inquiry's report on "methods of state oversight and the prevention of violence in schools," released on Wednesday, July 2, is to break this long and terrible code of silence. The voices of victims, expressed through hundreds of testimonies, were finally heard in all their gravity, revealing the immense suffering inflicted and the lives shattered. "Sexual violence behind the too-thick walls of a classroom, the silence of the night in boarding schools. Physical violence (...) of absolute sadism," summarized the committee's chair, Socialist MP Fatiha Keloua-Hachi. Following the surge of the MeToo movement, campaigns against incest and sexual abuse within the Church, schools now face their own reckoning. The scale of this reality – at last revealed and debated – and the pressing need to find solutions put into perspective any political maneuvering that may have motivated the committee's leaders. Specifically, Paul Vannier, the co-rapporteur from the radical left party La France Insoumise, who sought to bring down Prime Minister François Bayrou, accusing him of "lying" about his knowledge of the abuse in the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram Catholic school scandal. What matters most now is implementing the MPs' proposals. No one would understand if the intense and turbulent political context were to hinder the essential reforms needed to put an end to the "unthinkable." Part of these changes lies in the need for the state to exercise better oversight of schools, especially private schools under contract with the state, which receive three-quarters of their funding from public money and are a central focus of the MPs' report. The "distinctive character" legally recognized for these primary, middle and high schools cannot exempt them from external scrutiny when it comes to protecting children. It is urgent, as the report suggests, to end the unjustifiable exception that allows private schools to be managed by the Financial Directorate of the Ministry of Education rather than, as with public schools, by the General Directorate for School Education. Similarly, general inspectors of education must be granted the power to initiate investigations on their own, which they currently lack, to ensure their independence from political authority. The question of compensation also needs to be addressed. Within schools, a reporting system that protects staff from pressure needs to be established, and students must be informed of their rights. The "Let's break the silence" plan, launched in March by Education Minister Elisabeth Borne, which makes reporting violence mandatory in private schools under contract, extends questionnaires to boarders and students on school trips, and strengthens inspections, is a good start. But the cross-party observations made by the MPs is clear: The scourge of violence stems from structural failings needs urgent solutions.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Children ‘subjected to monstrosities': Report exposes decades of abuse in French schools
French lawmakers on Wednesday accused the state of "structural dysfunctions" in handling child abuse in schools, delivering a scathing 330-page report that chronicles decades of systemic violence and silence across France's educational institutions. 'Children across France were subjected to monstrosities,' wrote the committee president, Fatiha Keloua Hachi, describing the three-month investigation as a 'deep dive into the unthinkable'. The probe, led by centrist Violette Spillebout from Macron's ruling party Renaissance, and Paul Vannier, a lawmaker with the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), heard testimony from 140 people, including survivors. While abuse occurred in both public and private schools, the MPs said Catholic institutions were especially affected, citing 'stricter educational models' and a persistent 'law of silence'. In many cases, they said, it wasn't just the children who kept quiet but also school officials, clergy and civil servants who failed to act or actively covered up wrongdoing. Historian Claude Lelièvre traced this back to the culture of silence and obedience in religious teaching orders. "They viewed obedience as a cardinal virtue, both for themselves and for their students. Obedience at all costs. Obedience to someone who, in their eyes, was the lieutenant of God on earth," he said. Public schools, by contrast, embraced a different philosophy. "It wasn't about obeying a person," Lelièvre said, "but helping children consent to shared rules." The Bétharram case Much of the report focuses on the Bétharram Catholic boarding school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, where priests, teachers and staff are accused of having sexually and physically abused students from 1957 to 2004. According to the MPs, some 200 complaints have been filed since the beginning of the year. Victims described acts of 'unprecedented severity, of absolute sadism'. Lawmakers called Bétharram a "textbook example" of the state's failure to prevent and monitor abuse, warning that the same systemic flaws "are still in place today". Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was education minister from 1993 to 1997 and sent some of his children to the school, has faced growing criticism. The report stops short of directly implicating him, but Spillebout and Vannier wrote: "In the absence of action from a minister who was informed and in a position to intervene, the abuse of students at Bétharram continued for years." Bayrou's eldest daughter, Helene Perlant, accused the clergy running the school of systemic abuse, saying a priest beat her during summer camp when she was 14. She said however her father did not know about the incident. In a footnote, Vannier accused Bayrou of having "knowingly misled" the National Assembly in March, when he initially claimed to have learned about the scandal "at the same time as everyone else, in the press". He later admitted he had received information, but said he had not grasped the seriousness of the allegations. Lack of figures and oversight Beyond Bétharram, the report highlights the state's failure to monitor abusive staff. Regional background checks allowed sanctioned teachers to move between schools undetected. "The Ministry of Education," the report said, "is still incapable of ensuring that a sanctioned teacher cannot simply be transferred to another school." This kind of administrative evasion has been going on for decades. "For a long time now, there has been a culture of cover-up, of transferring problematic staff, of not reporting incidents when they occurred," Lelièvre said. The committee also pointed to a lack of national data on abuse. 'No consolidated public data is available on violence committed against pupils by members of staff,' the report stated, urging the government to commission new surveys. Where data does exist — notably on sexual violence — the gap between official data and victimisation surveys is stark. While national surveys estimate 7,000 pupils are affected annually, state school leaders reported only 280 incidents in 2023-2024. 'The Ministry is not really tracking these issues thoroughly,' Lelièvre said. "The figures are inconsistent, and there's a lack of proper monitoring and understanding of what's happening. We need much more robust oversight, including independent monitoring, not just relying on the institution itself." Urgent recommendations To address what they call a "systemic culture of impunity", the MPs called for tighter background checks and the creation of a national reporting platform that would allow whistleblowers to bypass traditional hierarchies. The new platform, called Signal Educ', would be accompanied by annual regional reports on abuse in schools. They also recommended that contracts between the state and private schools include binding provisions on abuse prevention and child safety, with clear sanctions for non-compliance. For boarding schools, they called for yearly unannounced inspections and confidential interviews with randomly selected students. Other proposals include the creation of a national compensation fund for victims and a legal review to potentially extend, or in some cases eliminate, statutes of limitation for sexual abuse of minors. Although the cross-party commission unanimously adopted the report, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will act on its recommendations.
Local France
2 days ago
- Local France
Inquiry accuses French PM of failing to act over school abuse
The scathing report issued by several French lawmakers, who have investigated widespread claims of abuse at the Notre-Dame de Betharram boarding school, also pointed to 'persistent violence' in other French schools, accusing the state of failing to act. Bayrou, 74, has in recent months faced accusations from the opposition that, as education minister, he was aware of widespread physical and sexual abuse over many decades at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school, to which he sent some of his children. 'In the absence of action that the former education minister had the means to take, this physical and sexual violence against the pupils of Betharram continued for years,' the two co-rapporteurs of the inquiry, Violette Spillebout and Paul Vannier, said in a 330-page report published on Wednesday. The conclusions of the commission of inquiry, which began its work in March and heard from 135 people, including survivors of abuse at other schools, add further pressure on Bayrou, who survived a vote of no confidence on Tuesday. Named by President Emmanuel Macron in December to bring much-needed stability to the French government, his minority coalition relies on the far-right to stay in office and risks being ejected in the autumn in a looming standoff over the budget. The centrist politician has denied any wrongdoing and denounced what he calls a campaign of 'destruction' against him. 'This commission of inquiry was a thorough investigation into the unthinkable: children, all over France, subjected to monstrous acts,' wrote Fatiha Keloua Hachi, who presided over the inquiry. Over the past three months the lawmakers heard of sexual violence and 'physical violence too, sometimes of an unprecedented severity, of absolute sadism,' she said. In mid-May, Bayrou was questioned over five-and-a-half hours by lawmakers investigating the violence, in one of the most delicate moments of his months in office. He struck a defiant tone at the time and said he only knew of allegations of sexual abuse from media reports. Advertisement Centrist Spillebout, and Vannier, a lawmaker with the hard-left La France Insoumise party (LFI), said the violence at the Betharram school was systemic and 'cannot be reduced to isolated incidents'. The violence 'was – at least in part – institutionalised', they said, with 'a community of prominent figures providing unwavering support', including 'members of the government'. The lawmakers stressed that the abuse at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school was also 'far from being a unique case'. Such violence still persists in private schools, particularly Catholic establishments, the authors said, pointing to a 'strong code of silence'. The rapporteurs also deplored 'a failing state', with 'virtually non-existent' controls and an 'inadequate' system of prevention and reporting. They listed a range of proposals to address the violence, including creating a compensation fund for victims. Around 200 legal complaints have been filed since February last year accusing priests and staff at Betharram of physical or sexual abuse from 1957 to 2004. Some of the boarders said the experience had scarred them for life, recounting how some priests visited boys at night. Bayrou's eldest daughter, Helene Perlant, accused the clergy running the school of systemic abuse, saying a priest beat her during summer camp when she was 14. She said, however, her father did not know about the incident. Advertisement
