School bullying: the blatant mistrust that French education officials show towards parents
A major controversy has erupted in France about the way an education authority responded to the parents of a 15-year-old boy who took his own life after being bullied. Officials claimed the pupil's parents had shown an “unacceptable” approach towards school staff and even threatened legal action for defamation. As Mediapart's Mathilde Goanec reports, this grim episode has raised questions over how the country's local education authorities deal with parental concerns over problems such as bullying. It also raises a wider issue about the role that parents are allowed to have in schools.
EducationEducation minister Gabriel Attal described it as “shameful”. The recently-appointed minister was speaking on Saturday about a letter sent by an education authority west of Paris to the family of a 15-year-old boy called Nicolas, the victim of bullying at a school there last year. The teenager, who in September 2023 moved to a new school in Paris, took his own life a day after the new academic year started.
