Blockade of high schools: The Minister of Education visits a degraded establishment near Bordeaux, without meeting any students

“I thank you because there were no injuries even though it was an extremely violent attack,” Édouard Geffray told staff at the Iris de Lormont high school, near Bordeaux, this Thursday. And, you also avoided the destruction of equipment that would have been very difficult to repair, hundreds of students would have been left behind. » A week after the damage committed at the Iris de Lormont high school, on the sidelines of the high school mobilization, for damage estimated at 150,000 euros, the Minister of Education went there quickly, during his trip to Gironde.

“Those responsible are not necessarily students,” argues Thierry Malewicz, the high school principal. Their demands were listened to and heard, everything was done so that this high school dialogue could take place and there, we are effectively coming up against a fringe of thirty individuals who have degraded the establishment. They are not in the dialogue. »

The minister approves, believing that “real dialogue is everywhere: in establishments, at the academic level and at the national level with elected high school students and the platform”. “It exists, it has already resulted in some actions and there will be others in the days to come,” he promises, including one via video with high school organizations this Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Before deciding: “The people who do this are criminals. »

No preventive closure despite calls for scrapping

This Wednesday morning, a trash fire damaged the facade and gate of the Métiers La Ruche high school, a private professional establishment under association contract located in Bordeaux. “It’s not easy, we endure things and we try so hard to support our establishments and it is difficult to be able to go against what is happening to us,” says Isabelle Polidano, head of establishment, visibly upset by the situation. With a hand on his arm, the minister asked him to “hold on”.

La Ruche had been closed preventively, with distance learning courses since October 2, but not the Iris. “At the Iris high school, the principal kept it open despite the advice of teachers, in the context of calls for it to be scrapped on social networks,” Maëlle, a history and geography teacher, would like to point out. And in fact, there was some damage. » Several other high schools including Elie-Faure, also in Lormont, had closed their doors.

Students kept at a distance from the minister

This Thursday, on the occasion of the minister's visit, students from the Elie-Faure high school, located a few hundred meters from Les Iris, tried to attract the minister's attention to discuss. “But CRS buses hid them,” says Maëlle. They were demonstrating perhaps for the first time and we really made them completely invisible. » “I can tell you that there are several hundred teenagers from Lormont who have seen what freedom of expression means in the eyes of this government,” adds François, a teacher in economics and social sciences. The teachers insist on a mobilization this Thursday morning, completely peaceful, without any excess.

All our information on the blockade of high school students

“I don’t know how many police forces could have been mobilized, just so that the minister could come and see the little material damage,” François seethes. The material and human damage does not date from last week but is old, it is the result of the policy pursued by this government. »