the deployment of a mobile force is not unanimous among school staff

While the Minister of National Education announced on Friday the deployment of a mobile school force to ensure security in schools, the idea divides among staff.

Threats targeting educational establishments, via hacking of digital spaces, violence targeting teachers or heads of establishments… Current events show that schools are sometimes undermined. The Minister of National Education wanted to mark the occasion, Friday March 29, during a trip to a high school in Bordeaux which itself had recently been targeted. Nicole Belloubet notably made two announcements. From now on, in the event of a complaint from an establishment or a professor, following acts of violence or cybercrime, the State will automatically become a civil party. A mobile school force will also be created at the start of the next school year. After these announcements, reactions were mixed.

In front of a college in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the minister’s exit surprises even these French and English teachers: “For the moment, we are managing this on our own. It’s true that state aid is a great pleasure.” Among the two measures announced, these two professors seem more convinced by the judicial support. A symbolic but necessary support according to them: “We are happy to know that the State will now be on our side. This will reassure us in our daily practice. When we file a complaint it is never easy. When we are accompanied, whether by the head of the establishment or “a colleague is always a plus. So in addition to the State, we actually can’t say no.”

“We have to face it every day”

In this establishment, no major accident has been reported recently but these teachers feel the climate is deteriorating and tense, particularly around questions of secularism: “It’s something that is part of our daily concerns and we have to face it every day: remember the rules, remember what it is, the definition, respect in every way…”

As for the mobile force, this team which must be deployed in the event of difficulties in an establishment and composed of around twenty agents, the idea does not really convince: “It doesn’t look fast. It would take an extremely easy, extremely fast system, and right now it doesn’t seem like it.”

For Marie and Matthieu, both supervisors, this system also risks straining relations with the students: “I don’t see at all the point in someone intervening. It would really make the situation worse. As supervisors, the idea is really to try to create something. They can already see us like cops and it’s complicated. For me, repression is not at all the direction in which we should go.” It’s also difficult not to see a publicity effect, they say. All vacant positions should already be filled before mobilizing teachers on other issues.