Weird article. I’m all for not arresting students in classrooms as happens in my country, but in this case the kid was arrested for a pattern of behavior including explicitly documented terroristic threats which ultimately ended the life of their classmate. Too little too late by the French government since they were aware of the problems and only decided to take any action after it could have helped the victim. Hopefully this at least sends the message they intended to send rather than an unintended message associating vulnerable people with the otherwise oppressive state.
From what I remember of school, the only thing that makes bullies stop is when they fear the consequences of continuing their behaviour. That means someone has to actually do something beyond meekly going “can you please stop harassing that other student if it’s not too much trouble…?” Getting the police involved is actually one of very few things that makes schools take bullying and harassment seriously.
The French government is doing a lot better than other places in terms of defending LGBTQ+ rights
No, they certainly aren’t. Even the left couldn’t care less or are openly hostile, and the current government is silently killing us in many ways. As a french trans woman, I sincerely wish people would stop spreading BS like this, it makes our struggles even more invisible and harder than they already are. Talk about what you actually know.
Agreed
You need to tell OP or the Guardian writer who wrote this article. I don’t know enough about French politics and were only responding to the article.
Never trust the Guardian on trans issues.
The last time the parliament proposed an improvement of the IVF law to allow it in other cases than cishet couples, the government removed from the proposal the IVF for trans men, and the partner-assisted reproduction for lesbian couples.
And all of them fight against what they call the “wokisme”.
They are only doing better than lots of countries, because lots of countries are absolutely awful.
TW : suicide
Don’t be fooled, this has nothing to do with the fight against transphobia in France.
The Minister of Education has been facing a shit storm ever since a newspaper revealed that his administration had prevented a harassed (cis) kid from speaking, and the kid ended up committing suicide.
Faced with the scandal, the Minister asked his administration to take up all complaints of harassment and take action.
It’s to their advantage that the debate is refocused on the symbolic violence of this intervention. The reason for the harassment is the least of their concerns.
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The French government has defended the arrest of a teenage boy in the middle of class over claims of bullying a transgender classmate, a rare move that angered many pupils and parents despite widespread support for a crackdown on harassment.
Government spokesperson Olivier Veran said the arrest had been made “in compliance” with policies against abusive behaviour, and aimed to send “a very strong message” to bullying students.
A police source told the AFP news agency that the decision to arrest the boy was based on “the nature of extremely serious threats that required urgent detention”.
The alleged victim, who attends a different school, was targeted with comments such as “We’re going to cut your throat” and “I detest your type … go die, go kill yourself”.
The controversy comes days after it emerged that education officials had sent a threatening letter to the parents of a boy who had complained of being bullied by classmates for months, saying their public statements complaining about the bullying were “unacceptable” and urged them to adopt a “constructive” attitude.
The boy, identified as Nicolas, 15, later killed himself on 5 September in a Paris suburb, one day after pupils went back to school after the summer break.
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