The new decree opens the door to the transfer of a bullying student, after the victim was previously transferred to another school in most cases.
Mother of baby Linsday weeps after her daughter's suicide - Source: AFP
The French government took several new measures this week to help protect students who are victims of bullying.
The new decree 2023-782, signed by Education Minister Gabriel Attal on the sixteenth of this month, indicates that a bullying student may be transferred to a new school, whereas the victim pupil was the one who was often transferred to another school in the past.
The new law also focuses on cyberbullying and lays the foundations for punishing abusers if found guilty.
Wilfred Isanga, director of ALCHM that fights bullying, child abuse and violence in schools, said the new measure “sends a strong signal to the national education system and to parents”, explaining that Minister Attal had entered through his decision “to the heart of the matter”.
Zero tolerance
School bullying has been declared a national emergency and priority in France since 13-year-old Lindsay committed suicide in the north of the country. Atal has addressed the problem several times since his appointment as culture minister, saying the response would be “relentless”.
Associations and organisations working in this field have been calling on the French government for years to take stronger measures to address a dilemma that led to the suicide of several students in France in recent years.
They argued that forcing a bullied student to change school was tantamount to imposing an additional punishment not only on him but also on his parents, even though he was in a victim’s position.
Le ministre @GabrielAttal rencontre les élèves de la classe « 6e Dopamine » du collège Bourbon qui font leur #Rentree2023. L’équipe éducative met en place un projet innovant de pédagogie positive pour encourager le travail avec des actions spécifiques pour doper leur motivation pic.twitter.com/OusiAftjUj
— Académie de La Réunion (@AcLaReunion) August 17, 2023
Isanga told Euronews that in some cases, especially in rural areas where schools are far from home, these decisions have become a huge burden for parents, adding: “If there is a rotten tomato in a box, you have to remove it and not the other good tomatoes.”
Since March 2022, bullying at school has become a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €150,000 if it leads the victim to suicide or even attempt suicide.
Global scourge
According to recent statistics conducted by the French Ministry of Education covering the period last spring [2022], 6.7 percent of high school students in France reported that they were exposed to five violent and repeated incidents.
Silence often remains the main obstacle to any solution in many cases of bullying and psychological harassment.
“Many families are struggling in silence and we don’t hear them and there are more children struggling alone,” Issanga stresses. “This decree is an excellent step forward, but we have to wait and see what really changes on the ground,” he concludes.
Bullying at school is a global scourge, according to Atlasocio, nearly 130 million pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide [more than one in three] are victims of bullying at school.
