Éric Dupond-Moretti joins the hot back-to-school issue. While the Council of State examined on Tuesday afternoon the disputed ban on the wearing of the abaya at school introduced at the start of the school year, the Minister of Justice assures, without directly mentioning it, his support for This measure. This document, entitled “Circular relating to offenses committed in schools” and consulted by our colleagues from Le Parisien, was sent to all prosecutors in order to request the greatest firmness in the face of serious attacks on secularism.
“I recall here the shared challenge of preserving the school space, which must remain a republican sanctuary, against any form of violence or any offense related to violent radicalization or separatism to which I await a criminal response. firm, fast and systematic, ”wrote the minister on the eve of the return to school for first and final year students.
In this circular, Éric Dupond-Moretti takes care to recall all the legal tools allowing the prosecution of the perpetrators of offenses of this kind, a certain number of them having been put in place within the framework of the law against separatism in 2021. He mentions the cases of “threatening, violent or intimidating behavior committed with the aim of obtaining an adaptation of the rules of operation of the public service” and calls for “the centralization, within the academy, of all reports intended for the public prosecutor’s office”. “The start of the school year is a highlight for everyone that punctuates the year, assures the minister. It is therefore an opportunity for me to insist on the importance of the relationship that exists between National Education and the judicial authority and to invite the public prosecutors and public prosecutors to support and accompany […] national education representatives. »
Referring to the circular from his colleague from the National Education department evoking the ban on wearing the abaya and qamis at school, Éric Dupond-Moretti assures that “the abuses that could be committed in the context of the implementation of these instructions will necessarily call for a very reactive penal response” and that the “pressures on students’ beliefs” or “attempts to indoctrinate them which would be adopted in public schools and local public establishments of teaching, in their immediate vicinity and during any activity related to teaching, constitute a contravention”.
The decision to ban the wearing of the abaya in public schools, colleges and high schools was taken on August 27 by the Minister of National Education Gabriel Attal and transmitted via a note to the heads of establishments. This Tuesday, the Council of State, seized by the association Action the rights of Muslims (ADM) which sees in this ban an “infringement on the rights of the child”, met for two hours and will make its final decision as to the validity of this measure by Thursday.