She showed up at school with an impressive knife and its 17-centimeter blade. In Rennes, a 12-year-old 5th grade student caused panic when she threatened her English teacher with her gun, insisting that she wanted to kill the teacher. After having her class evacuated, the teacher from the Hautes-Ourmes college was able to escape. The teenager was finally disarmed without having physically injured anyone. Classified as REP +, the establishment does not have a reputation for being particularly violent. But this attack, a few weeks after the assassination of Dominique Bernard in a high school in Arras, has awakened the fears of certain parents.
In front of the gates of the Rennes establishment, a mother of a student expressed her shock. ” It’s horrible. How can a student come to school with a big knife like that? “. Before daring to make a proposal. “I think we should search the bags at the entrance. I would be more reassured,” says the mother. Should we search school bags to ensure the safety of students? And is it legal? Who can do it? 20 minutes asked the question to a large number of administrations, who only passed the buck. Here is the summary.
Does the law allow a search of students’ bags?
In France, only a judicial police officer can search a student’s personal effects, whether their bag or their locker. In all cases, the student must be present during this search. At the entrance to certain educational establishments, we have already seen bags being checked by supervisors or security agents, in application of Vigipirate measures. “These entry controls cannot include a search and are limited to purely visual inspection of the bags, with the consent of the interested parties. The agent must ask for the bag to be opened, but only inspect it with his eyes, he cannot touch it, nor search the person himself,” recalled the Ministry of the Interior in a response to a question asked by a deputy from Ardèche.
What if the student refuses? “He cannot be forced to accept it, but it is in this case possible to refuse him access to the establishment under articles R. 421-10 and 421-12 of the education code,” assures the Ministry of the Interior.
Have excavations already been carried out?
In fact, it has already happened that students have had their bags searched. On specialized forums and social networks, we find numerous testimonies of people talking about a real search of their bags. Most of the time, she intervened at the end of the year when staff members were concerned about the idea of messy festivities using flour or eggs. This practice is illegal.
In the Drôme, a giant excavation occurred at the beginning of December in a high school but it was carried out by the police. The police had been contacted by the management of the establishment, who suspected a student of having a bladed weapon. The establishment was the one where Thomas, killed during a ball in Crépol, was registered. No weapon had been found.
What the Arras terrorist attack changed
Although the Vigipirate plan has been in force for many years, certain dramatic events have raised the level of security in educational establishments. This is particularly the case since the terrorist attack at the Gambetta high school in Arras, where Dominique Bernard was killed by several stab wounds in October. It should be noted that the teacher was attacked outside the establishment and that an anti-intrusion alarm was then triggered.
Since this attack, some establishments have carried out a visual check of students’ bags, who must open them before entering. The bags of parents or external workers are also checked. “In the event of a proven suspicion that contravenes the internal regulations of the establishment, the head of the establishment or his representative always has the capacity to summon the student and ask him to empty his bag himself in his presence,” specifies the Ministry of the Interior. Following the Arras attack, the rector of the Aix-Marseille academy announced his intention to strengthen controls at entrances to establishments.
“I can’t do it case by case”
But it is impossible to control everyone. This Monday, the principal of the Descartes high school in Rennes reminded parents of students who were worried about the confinement of their children. “I have 1,500 people to manage, I cannot do it on a case by case basis,” he recalled after the threats of an intrusion by an armed man.
If almost all middle schools are today closed and fenced off, the same is not true for high schools, which welcome an older public, sometimes adults and authorized to go out in complete freedom. In Brittany, for example, it is estimated that nearly 70% of high schools are not completely closed. The region, which is in charge of the buildings, specifies that it is “impossible” to control 100% of access to high schools “due to lack of staff” but is refusing for the moment to install turnstiles and cameras. “Schools must not become prisons with barbed wire and watchtowers, we do not want to transform establishments into bunkers,” we specify. Other regions have chosen to strengthen their security. In Ile-de-France, 5,000 cameras have been deployed around high schools.