After SciencesPo or CentraleSupélec, it is in another major French school that rape and gender-based violence are reported: 17 students, including 16 women and one non-binary person, “declare having suffered one or more rapes” during their studies at the AgroParisTech engineering school, according to the conclusions of an internal survey published on Tuesday June 21 and to which franceinfo had access.
A student association for the fight against sexist and sexual violence, called CASSIS (agro cell for awareness and information on sexuality), conducted a survey in 2021 among 2,000 students. 566 of them responded.
In addition, 23% of respondents say they have been victims of sexual assault “with contact”. 10 of them claim to have had their condom removed by surprise, without their consent. The survey shows that 31.9% of sexual assaults and 64.7% of rapes were committed while the victim had consumed alcohol or narcotics, and was not “not in a condition to know or tell whether he or she was consenting or consenting”.
The study identifies 526 “discriminatory behavior or remarks or comments with a sexual connotation”, often taking place during festive events, coming mainly from students but also sometimes from teachers or staff of the establishment (for 42 of them). The members of the association alert on “the extent of this sexist and sexual violence” within the establishment and “urgent and alarming nature of the situation”.
The management will set up, from the start of the school year in September, among other things, a listening and support unit for victims, as well as training to raise awareness of gender-based and sexual violence. The general manager of AgroParisTech seized the public prosecutor of Paris.
“These figures are alarming and intolerable. This must stop”, protests Siham Lachgar, co-responsible for the fight against sexist and sexual violence at AgroParisTech. 17 students entrust “have suffered one or more rapes” during their studies at this engineering school.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise”, admits Siham Lachgar. She admits that the results of this investigation “highlight flaws” and “also question us about the action plan that we have implemented within AgroParisTech” for three years. The mechanism for combating gender-based and sexual violence was born “unfortunately after a party. Students alerted us to these facts”.
This plan is divided into two parts. The first aims to inform and educate students “with, for example, the establishment, for example, of a compulsory amphitheater for newcomers”. Then, AgroParisTech set up a listening unit. “We wanted it to be mixed, that is to say that the listening unit includes members of the administrative staff, two teachers, students and also a doctoral student.”
Siham Lachgar “incites” victims to file a complaint. “We are witnessing a liberation of speech but above all a liberation of listening. And it is very important that the victims trust us and that they dare to come and talk to us”. She repeats that the school is ready to accompany them. “We can explain to them all the possibilities they have from a legal point of view, they can be accompanied by psychologists within AgroParisTech but also outside through associations”.