They are asserting their right of withdrawal. Since this Monday, 1 p.m., around fifty teachers from the Lycée Voltaire, i.e. a third of the teaching staff of this Orleans La Source establishment, no longer teach their students. Gathered this Tuesday morning in general assembly, they also voted a strike notice. A fist mobilization to denounce the lack of supervisors and growing insecurity in the establishment since the beginning of the month.
For the past week, the Lycée Voltaire has been facing an exceptional situation: all members of school life are in contact after the detection, Tuesday, December 1, of a case of Covid-19 among the CPEs (principal educational advisers). For a whole day, no supervisor or childcare center worked. And since, the establishment faces a shortage of school life.
Fire alarm, power cuts and fire extinguisher jets
An absence of supervisory staff, which leads to many degradations in the school. “This usually happens through untimely triggering of the fire alarm by some students”, says Julien Legeay, representative of the teaching staff and professor of history and geography. “The only measure proposed by the management at that time was to deactivate the fire alarms”, so that they no longer ring, adds Julien Legeay. Fire alarms that were reactivated only this Tuesday.
Another problem: regular power cuts in the school because students have access to electrical boxes, in the corridors, explains one of the technical officers of the school. “My colleagues spend their time restoring the power“, he testifies, also mentioned several false ceiling tiles torn off by students in buildings. “The equipment does not work, we teach in the dark, we have dark corridors and it is complicated to manage traffic and safety”, says Marina Janicaud-Auger, English teacher. “So the security and educational conditions are deplorable.”
– Cecile Da Costa
Professors also report that many fire extinguishers were emptied in the hallways by students, sometimes “launched in classrooms in the presence of students and teacher”, continues the representative of the teaching staff who denounces “an unmanageable situation”. Fire extinguishers are being put back in place on Tuesday by agents from the Region. During a meeting this Tuesday morning, a teacher testified: “I even have a student who threw firecrackers in my room”, all while the fire alarms were deactivated.
In this context of under supervision of 2,000 students, teachers are surprised that the school has remained open. “Our safety, but that of the students too, was clearly in danger”, says Julien Legeay. “We are there to educate students, students who sometimes come from far away, it is very difficult to close a school”, defends Jérôme Baretje, principal of the high school. “We thought that even in degraded mode, we could have worked”, he continues, acknowledging that “never have imagined that the students would behave like this”.
– Cecile Da Costa
These understaffing in school life regularly lead to degradation and aggression and to a certain feeling of impunity in the corridors – Julien Legeay, professor
Behind the urgency of this situation, the fifty or so professors also intend to denounce a latent lack of staff. “It’s a structural problem in this high school “, notes Cyril Poncet, literature professor and staff representative. “These understaffing in school life regularly lead to degradation and aggression between students but also against teachers, and there is a certain feeling of impunity in the corridors”, adds Julien Legeay.
The principal affirms for his part that“in a normal situation, we have an endowment allowing us to function”. Teachers require at least the opening of an additional childcare center post and three supervisor posts.
“The regional council must [qui s’occupe du bâti des lycées] also hear that the premises are in a sorry state and that we have major security problems “, believes Cyril Poncet. With this mobilization, the teachers hope to put pressure on the management, so that it turns to the Region and the Rectorate, in order to ask for more resources.