The Minister of National Education is sending a message of firmness this Wednesday after the placement in police custody of a teenager who sent death threats to one of his classmates.
After the arrest of a 14-year-old schoolboy in his class on Monday, suspected of having harassed a schoolgirl in gender transition on Instagram, the Minister of National Education made very firm remarks.
“I hear that there may be questions, we will study what happened but we must be very firm,” launched the boss of rue de Grenelle during a trip to Paris.
“Words that make you nauseous”
The young man was arrested by police on Monday, in a college in Alfortville (Val-de-Marne), where he attended school. Taken in the middle of class, the teenager was placed in police custody and admitted the facts.
According to information from BFMTV, a 15-year-old transgender girl, a second year student at the Maximilien Perret high school in Alfortville, went earlier in the day to the police station to denounce acts of harassment, homophobic remarks and threats of dead.
Among the comments the teenager made: “We’re going to cut your throat, we’re going to make you a Hitler, we’re going to make propaganda with your head, shut your mouth if you don’t want to be traumatized, I have a hatred towards your race, get lost, go die, kill yourself, you dirty PD, tranny.”
“We are talking about threats of throat slitting, suicide. These are very serious words, which make you feel nauseous,” remarked Gabriel Attal.
“No serenity without firmness”
While welcoming the “rapid response” to this case, Gabriel Attal recognized “the complexity” of mobilizing against school bullying with “teachers, police officers, magistrates, associations”.
“Obviously that can raise questions. We need serenity and firmness. But there cannot be serenity without firmness,” added the thirty-year-old with his meteoric rise.
The Minister of National Education, who has made the fight against school bullying his priority, has been under pressure since the revelations on Saturday of the “mail of shame”, on his own terms.
The Versailles rectorate sent a letter in the spring to parents who requested action regarding the harassment suffered by their 15-year-old son. The teenager has since hanged himself in Poissy. In the process, the minister summoned all the rectors, demanding “an electric shock at all levels”. Since 2022, school bullying has been punishable by law.