A collective trauma for the educational teams. On March 16, 2017, at the Tocqueville high school in Grasse, a high school student wanting to reproduce the Colombine massacre opened fire on the principal, who had courageously intervened between the student and his comrades. He also injured several students. The high school student had entered the establishment by climbing a fence at the back of the building. He was equipped with an impressive arsenal (shotgun, 22 caliber long rifle pistol, shotgun, dummy grenades, etc.)
This Thursday opens the trial of the main suspect and his alleged accomplice before the Assize Court for minors in the Alpes-Maritimes. A moment eagerly awaited by the headmaster targeted in 2017, who fortunately got out of it and still exercises, but in another high school of the Nice academy. A trial for which the SNPDEN-UNSA, the main union of heads of establishments, has become a civil party and will be represented by the president of the bar, Francis Lec, his counsel. “It is a first in the history of the education system that a school head was shot. It is an attack on the entire profession, and we wanted to symbolically mark our presence alongside our colleague, ”explains Bruno Bobkiewicz, general secretary of the union.
Security works have taken place
A news item that had put the school security file back on the table. “Physical attacks on staff by students or their parents happen several times a year, but at different levels of severity,” notes Bruno Bobkiewicz. The regions are responsible for the secondary schools and their security. They took action jointly with the Ministry of Education, from 2016 to counter terrorist risks. Some high schools at the time sinned by their very extensive configuration, with kilometers of enclosure: “Fences were real colanders or were very easy to climb, as was the case for the high school in Grasse”, recalls Bruno Bobkiewicz.
These priority security works therefore started in 2016 and were accelerated after the Grasse shootings: fences were added, video surveillance cameras sometimes installed, and some doors were reinforced. Since 2016, establishments must also organize three security exercises each year, including one simulating an attack with intrusion.
Security gates far from being generalized
Heads of establishments can also carry out a visual inspection of bags with the consent of their owners. But only a judicial police officer (OPJ) can compel the search of personal effects.
After the Grasse attack, a debate was launched about the installation of security gates at the entrance to high schools. Some regions, such as Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, have massively equipped their establishments with this system. But the measure is far from having been generalized, firstly because it is expensive, but also because it was not unanimous. “The principals are not all in favor of it; this does not solve everything, and the passage of the students would take too long. We have no dogmatic position on the subject. It all depends on the context of the establishment,” explains Bruno Bobkiewicz.
Essential violence prevention work
What school heads continue to ask for is increased social support for the most disadvantaged high schools to prevent possible security problems. “Sometimes high school is the last public service in a city. We must be able to engage in partnership work with educators and social workers, in order to maintain the link with our students, ”says Bruno Bobkiewicz.
Pascal Bolloré, head of the legal unit at SNPDEN, also recalls the importance of training headteachers in security systems: “In the Grasse case, an alarm system made it possible to warn staff and students in the at-risk situation. »