A letter with a threatening tone was sent last May to the parents of Nicolas, a teenager who subsequently committed suicide after being the victim of school bullying.
The Versailles rectorate sent 120 letters for the 2022-2023 school year “said of disapproval” to families, including 55 “seem to raise questions”announced the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, Monday September 25. “Obviously, work will continue to identify what led to the sending of these letters, and whether it was justified to send them or not”he explained during a press briefing following a meeting with the rector.
“We are talking about a letter, called a letter of disapproval, which is sent to people when there are threats, sometimes threats to the physical integrity of National Education agents”, explained Gabriel Attal about the threatening letters sent by the rectorate. In this case, “obviously the institution has a vocation to stand alongside its agents and to make it known”he justified.
An “unacceptable” incident
This meeting with the rector followed the revelation of a letter with a threatening tone, sent in May by the rectorate to the parents of Nicolas, a teenager who subsequently committed suicide in Poissy (Yvelines) after being the victim of harassment school. This letter was described as “shame” by Gabriel Attal. The Minister of Education announced the launch of an audit on the management of cases of harassment during the last school year, in each academy.
The services of the Versailles academy and its former rector, Charline Avenel, who left in July, have since come under fire. Especially since another letter from the Versailles rectorate, addressed in May to parents who complained of sexual touching of their daughter, was also revealed in the press and condemned by Gabriel Attal.
“What happened is that there was an error, a mistake, it was that this letter was addressed to families who should not have [le] receive.”
Gabriel Attal, Minister of National Educationduring a press briefing
Gabriel Attal reiterated that this incident was not “not acceptable”. An interministerial plan on school bullying must be unveiled on Wednesday by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.