After the scandal over acts of aggression at CentraleSupélec, the director of Polytechnique François Bouchet, wanted to “know what was going on” in his establishment. A questionnaire was conducted from January 19 to February 6 and completed by around 2,100 students out of the 3,300 who joined X between 2018 and 2021, “i.e. more than 60% of responses, a very high participation”, notes the director.
And the result is, again, chilling. 23% of students surveyed (mostly women) say they have suffered a sexual assault during their schooling in the prestigious engineering school. We rubbed against them, we touched their breasts, their buttocks, we kissed them against their will. Eleven claim to be victims of attempted rape or rape during their years at Polytechnique.
A report to the public prosecutor
“We are in shock, I did not think that this questionnaire was going to lead to an inventory of attempted rape or rape, adds François Bouchet. These revealed facts of great gravity are unacceptable. We must mobilize to free up speech and further improve our action plan launched in 2017. Workshops on gender-based and sexual violence will be made compulsory for all students from next June. As soon as I learn of cases of sexism, I deal with them and I do everything to apply zero tolerance, it is essential. »
The director general assured that he had made a report to the public prosecutor on these testimonies which “remain, however, at this stage unfortunately anonymous, underlined François Bouchet. We suspected that there would be cases of sexist and sexual violence that would come up, harassment, exhibitionism, unwanted contact because we also have a listening unit which had been seized of certain cases. »