“Double standards compared to other private establishments”. The Averroès Muslim high school denounced, Wednesday, before the administrative justice, the “manifesto of power” of the prefect of the North in his decision to break his contract with the State, due to teachings deemed “contrary to the values of the Republic “.
It is “an administrative police measure which targets more the identity of the establishment and what it carries” than potential “administrative breaches”. Barely had the substance of the case been discussed before the Lille administrative court when Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for the Averroès high school, delivered the first blows.
The homophobic “excesses” of “Stanislas”
In his eyes, the decision taken in December by Georges-François Leclerc, then prefect of the North, to break from the start of the school year in September 2024 the contract (and therefore the public subsidies) linking the State to the Lille high school, constitutes “a double standard two measures”. Many in the audience have in mind the prestigious Stanislas Catholic high school, singled out in a report by the General Inspectorate of National Education recounting “abnormalities”, particularly homophobic ones. This same high school which has been at the center of an intense controversy since the new Minister of National Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, took office, who educated her sons there.
A little earlier, the prefecture’s lawyer, François Pinatel, had tried to brush aside the subject of Stanislas, whose name will never be mentioned: “I will not respond on this last point [le ”deux poids deux mesures”]which is also contradicted by current events.
To justify the prefect’s decision, against which the administrative court is seized in summary proceedings, Me Pinatel highlights a “materially established adherence” of the Averroès high school “to doctrines manifestly contrary to the values that private education under contract must convey of association”. The lawyer recalls that a 2015 inspection “highlighted” the “ambivalences of the establishment” and the “omnipresence” of religion.
A statement then supported by Louis-Xavier Thirode, interim prefect of the North, called to conclude: “We must still remember where the Averroès high school comes from […], very linked to the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the UOIF. »
“No permeability” between Muslims of France and teaching team
“There is no permeability” between Muslims of France and the educational team of the establishment, “which operates autonomously, with a director who carries out his functions on behalf of the State”, responds Paul Jablonski, other high school council.
Me Brengarth emphasizes the danger posed to the high school by the prefectural decision, a “death sentence” for an establishment which will not be able to operate without its subsidies, and of which 61% of students are on scholarships.
The decision is expected, at best, by the middle of next week. “We will take the time,” apologizes the president of the court. “I can’t tell you what day we will make our decision.”