The decree allowing school directors and heads of schools to exclude a bullying pupil was published in the Official Journal on August 16. This measure announced in April by Pap Ndiaye was implemented by his successor Gabriel Attal. Here is what the text provides for in primary, middle and high school.
From the start of the 2023 school year, students who harass their classmates may be expelled from their school. A measure that had been announced by the former Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye to fight against school harassment. Until now, harassed students, victims of their executioners, had to change schools. A decree published in the Official Journal of August 16 provides for the transfer of the harasser to another establishment, and this, from primary school. It thus enables school principals and headteachers to make the decision.
Who is affected by the change of school in the event of harassment?
“This disciplinary rule is applicable from the start of the 2023 academic year. It concerns 1st degree schoolchildren, but college and high school students”, says the government.
In which cases will a bullying student be transferred from school?
“In schools, when keeping a student poses a risk to the health or safety of other studentsdespite the implementation of the measures decided by the school principal after examination of the student’s situation by the educational team, the academic director of the national education services (DASEN) may ask the mayor to proceed with expulsion of the student from his school“, specifies the decree. A reinforced pedagogical and educational follow-up of the student will also be put in place by the director until the end of the current school year.
Disciplinary sanctions against cyberbullying
In colleges and high schools, students who commit acts of harassment against students located in another establishment may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
“This same decree will now make it possible to take disciplinary sanctions against a student who cyberbullies a student from another school. Previously, both students had to be in the same school to act”, recalls Gabriel Attal on social networks. The new Minister of National Education had affirmed, during a visit to Reunion on the occasion of the start of the school year which took place in August, that he wanted “zero tolerance against all forms of harassment” at school.