The Versailles rectorate sent 120 “so-called disapproval” letters to families last year, 55 of which “seem to raise questions,” indicated, Monday, September 25, the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, during a press briefing following a meeting with the rector. “Obviously, work will continue to identify what led to the sending of these letters, and whether it was justified to send them or not,” he explained after a meeting with Etienne Champion, the rector from the Versailles Academy, in position since July 2023.

This meeting followed the revelation of a letter with a threatening tone, sent by the rectorate to the parents of Nicolas, a teenager who subsequently committed suicide in Poissy, in Yvelines, after being the victim of school harassment.

In an interview published on Saturday September 23 by Le Parisien, Charline Avenel, the former rector of Versailles, presented “apologies to the parents of Nicolas”, 15 years old, who committed suicide at the start of the school year, in her name and to name of the institution she headed at the time of the facts, and described a letter they received as “inadmissible”. She claims that she was “not aware” of the controversial letter sent by the rectorate to the teenager’s parents who denounced acts of harassment against him.

“There was a mistake, a mistake.”

This letter was described as a “shame” by Gabriel Attal, who announced the launch of an audit on the management of cases of harassment during the last school year in each academy. On Friday, the terms of another letter from the Versailles rectorate, sent in May to parents who complained of sexual touching of their daughter, were also condemned by Gabriel Attal.

“Why did I come here to Versailles? First to create transparency. What are we talking about: (…) a letter, called a letter of disapproval, which is sent to people when there are threats, sometimes threats to the physical integrity of education agents national,” underlined Gabriel Attal on Monday. In such a case, “obviously the institution has a vocation to stand alongside its agents and make it known,” he added.

However, in this case, “what happened is that there was an error, a mistake, is that this letter was addressed to families who should not have [it] receive, in situations of school harassment, even sexual assault,” continued the minister, referring to an “not acceptable” incident. An interministerial plan on school bullying must be unveiled on Wednesday by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, during a press conference.