3 days ago
School violence in France: Report presents 50 recommendations to break 'culture of silence'
"You are at day one – I hope history will remember it – but you must keep going; there needs to be a day two, a day three," said Constance Bertrand, a former student of the Saint-Dominique Catholic school in Neuilly, northwest of Paris, on March 20, during the first hearing of France's parliamentary investigative committee on school violence, which focused on victim groups. "I beg you, do not let this issue fade away," she urged the lawmakers.
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.
