Letter by letter, the inscription is displayed on the large white sheet which will be, a few minutes later, hung on the pediment of the establishment, just below the letters indicating “Lycée Victor-Hugo”: “Racist principal. Rectorate complicit. » In a long survey of Mediapart, published just a week ago, students from this high school in downtown Marseille, very close to Saint-Charles station, say they are victims of “relentlessness” from the management. In question ? Their outfits which earned them summonses, in the name of the application of the latest ministerial instructions on conspicuous religious signs.
“I don’t want you to stay at home with ten kids, huh, making couscous, tajine or samosas”. In front of the Victor-Hugo high school, this Thursday morning, the sentence is broadcast at full volume in a speaker connected for the occasion. Remarks made by the headmaster of the establishment, in the face of these students summoned for having worn clothes deemed inappropriate. As reported Mediapart, one of them is dressed in an abaya, a long black dress considered by National Education as an outfit likely to ostensibly manifest a religious affiliation, and therefore prohibited. In this recording that 20 minutes also obtained, the prosecutor tells the story of a previous student “who put on outfits like that, who was worse than hanging in the city and who had strings underneath”.
“Degrading” remarks
“The words spoken are not admissible within our institution, believes a professor interviewed by 20 minutes on condition of anonymity. They have had an impact on the lives of some students who are already seeing this repeated in different places in their lives. And what I would like is for these words to stop. In concrete terms, some students find it difficult to return to class after the interviews. Suffering from racial, religious or sexist discrimination hurts, damages and weakens. If we want the school to be the sanctuary it claims to be, we have to be much more alert on these subjects. These remarks of our principal seem to me incompatible with the exercise of his functions because they are degrading for the pupils. »
These remarks, made at the beginning of the year by this newly appointed headmaster in the establishment, were the subject of a report to the rectorate. “We alerted them in every possible way and they really despised us, reports Emmanuel Roux, secretary general of the local CGT Marseille downtown union and supervisor at the Victor-Hugo high school. We went six months without an answer. “Several striking staff members were however suspended according to this union representative. “I was suspended a few days after parading with a banner: Balance your headmaster,” says one of them, until now supervisor at the Lycée Victor-Hugo. “There is a real climate of omerta”, regrets Emmanuel Roux.
Rectorate support
Solicited by Mediapart, the rectorate expresses “its full and complete support for the management team which is the subject of pressure and totally unjustified accusations”. A reaction that the mobilized staff does not understand. “In an establishment with a social position index which ranks our student 866th out of 866 general and technological high schools in France, with a fragile public, we create, day after day, a climate of trust, work and support with our students, write teachers in a press release. How can we build this trust with our students and their families when such degrading remarks and contrary to the values of the Republic are made by the highest authority of the establishment and endorsed by the rectorate? »
“We are asking for an institutional response following the comments that have been made,” claims Maria, another education assistant on strike since January 16. Contacted by phone by 20 minutesthe rectorate has not responded to our requests at the time of writing.