In Marseille, teachers assert their right to withdraw after the discovery of bullet holes in a college

There have been no classes since Tuesday, September 24 for the just over 400 students at the Stéphane-Mallarmé middle school in the 13th arrondissement of Marseille. The forty or so teachers and staff at the school are exercising their right to withdraw. The school, part of the priority education network (REP), is located in the heart of the Le Clos La Rose estate, very close to a drug dealing point.

More than 80 lead bullet impacts were observed, says a college professor, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “They are on the windows, on the facade and on the athletics track which is inside the college,” she describes. Shootings that cannot, at this stage, be directly linked to drug trafficking, indicates a police source. The Clos La Rose estate does not house the largest drug dealing point in Marseille, but is the subject of regular interventions by the police, specifies the same source.

Teachers say they feel in danger. And this is not the first time that traces of violence have been visible at the establishment. “The unsafe working environment has been reported for quite some time and it has only gotten worse. And that’s been the case for almost a year now.”testifies the professor. “At the start of the school year, we saw a fire on the wall of the establishment, and some graffiti too”says another teacher. A tag to indicate the presence of a drug dealing point, which has since been covered up, but the empty chair of a lookout is still there, a few meters from the perimeter wall.

The professors are waiting for answers from their academic management. For its part, the police prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône indicates that the police are on site and will stay as long as necessary.