How can justice better fight against school bullying? After the implementation of harsher penalties, it now relies on parents to identify the most serious situations.
Two students arrested Tuesday September 26 in their high school in La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée)another handcuffed in the middle of class in Alfortville (Val de Marne), the previous week. The images have left their mark, but to get that far, we still need to identify situations of harassment.
>> “Brigades” in the rectorates, confiscation of cell phones, empathy courses… The main lines of the government’s plan against school harassment
While the government must present on Wednesday September 27 its interministerial plan to fight against school bullying, considered as a “top priority” of the start of the school year for Élisabeth Borne, the question of prevention, detection, and finally repression of these more or less violent acts of intimidation is at the center of the debates.
“How can adults act if they don’t know?”
This plan was, in fact, announced in June by the Prime Minister after the suicide of Lindsay, 13, in Pas-de-Calais. She then asked the Ministers of the Interior, Justice, Health and the Secretary of State for Digital to work with the Minister of National Education. “At first glance, one could say ‘it’s obvious, it’s simple, well not that much’, explains police major Aude Métivier, also a school harassment representative in Val d’Oise. Harassment is done away from the view of adults!”
“Things will happen in the canteen, in the corridors, in the toilets, continues Aude Métivier. So afterward, how can adults act if they don’t know? It’s a very complex phenomenon.”
“Missing very serious situations”
In fact, justice is faced with the complexity of school bullying. Despite handrails filed by parents, several harassed children and adolescents have ended their lives in recent months. However, a year and a half ago, a new offense of school bullying was created, with heavy penalties: up to 10 years in prison in the event of suicide or attempted suicide by the victim.
But through prevention, reports are increasing, with the risk of overwhelming the justice system. “This is something that cannot be dealt with only through justice, warns the vice-prosecutor Aurélien Martini, in charge of the juvenile section at the Melun court (Seine et Marne) and member of the Union of Magistrates. The risk is to drown the judicial institution which will then no longer be able, with the means available to it, to sort through the files and miss situations which could be very serious.”
On the side of the Ministry of Justice, we encourage, on the contrary, establishments to systematically report cases of harassment to the prosecutor. Better to be seized for nothing, reminds the chancellery, than to miss a dramatic case.