Several principals attacked during high school blockades in France

Several principals were molested or attacked during high school blockades, rectorates and union representatives reported Thursday, who condemn this violence. “We do not condone this violence, attacking school heads is the wrong subject,” insisted Christelle Kauffmann, deputy general secretary of the school heads union SNPDEN-Unsa, recalling that principals do not, for example, “have the means to go from 35 to 25 in the final year class.”

“We don't see where the outcome is, and we don't know how to get out of this, we need help from the ministry, but which one I don't know,” she added. In Rouen, at the Blaise Pascal high school, the principal was attacked and slightly injured, as was the headmaster of the Elisa Lemonnier high school in Petit-Quevilly, according to the Normandy academy, which condemns “with the greatest firmness” these “unacceptable attacks”.

In Ingré, near Orléans, the principal of the Maurice Genevoix high school was attacked and slightly injured, with the prosecution describing the attack as “violent” without further details. According to the rectorate, the head of the establishment received “at least one blow” from which it could not be determined whether the perpetrator is a student of the high school and under what conditions this attack took place.

The principal of a vocational high school in Auchel (Pas-de-Calais) received a “firecracker lit on him on Thursday, which bounced before exploding on the ground about two meters from him”, according to the Béthune prosecutor's office. Shocked, he was hospitalized but has no ITT days at this stage. According to the regional council of the Paca Region, at the Victor Hugo high school in Marseille, “an attempted fire occurred inside the establishment, causing chaos in front of the high school” and “the principal, the assistant principal, the general secretary and the team leader were attacked and doused with gasoline.”

“We recommend to our members not to take risks, when they believe that security is not ensured to welcome the public, they should not hesitate to inform the rectoral authorities that it is necessary to close,” Agnès Andersen, general secretary of the ID-FO union of establishment heads, told AFP.