Vendée: the State ordered to compensate the family of a schoolboy for 239 hours of uninsured lessons

While high school students have been mobilizing for two weeks to demand additional resources for National Education, this court decision rendered on October 8 has not gone unnoticed.

The State was ordered by the administrative court of Nantes to compensate the mother of a middle school student from Vendée for repeated absences of teachers who were not replaced during the 2021-2022 school year.

He will have to pay 1,200 euros to the schoolboy's family "in compensation for the academic damage" suffered by the teenager, a 5th grade student in a public school in Montaigu-Vendée at the time of the events, according to the decision consulted on Tuesday by AFP.

In total, 239 hours of compulsory teaching had not been provided to the middle school student, specifies the judgment revealed by Ouest-France.

The court notes that the absences of mathematics, music and visual arts teachers are explained by “sick leave granted for long periods”. As for the absence of the technology teacher, it was due to retirement.

If the rector of the Nantes academy argued that the absences of the French teacher (129 hours lost) were "unforeseeable" because they were taken in the form of renewed fifteen-day sick leave, the court considers that they are indeed "of a lasting nature" due to "their duration and their extent".

Contacted by AFP, the Nantes rectorate did not react immediately.

The family's lawyer, Me Joyce Pitcher, welcomed this decision as “confirmation of the State's responsibility”.

“Decisions like this, we are going to have others,” warned the lawyer who also represents the collective of parents of students “We want teachers”.

“400 procedures are underway, all years combined,” she added.

For several weeks, high school students have been demanding more human and financial resources.

They denounce in particular the teachers who have not been replaced, the lack of medical and social staff, the dilapidated buildings and even busy schedules.

Last Thursday, the government announced the emergency deployment of 3,000 replacement teachers in establishments where the situation is most critical.