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The Star
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Star
France must better regulate private Catholic schools, lawmakers say after abuse scandal
FILE PHOTO: A view shows the school Le Beau Rameau, formerly known as the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a French Catholic college-high school, in Lestelle-Betharram, near Pau, France, February 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alexandre Dimou/File Photo PARIS (Reuters) -France must better regulate private schools and allow prosecutions for abuse of pupils whenever it was committed, two lawmakers said in a report published on Wednesday after allegations of decades of abuse at a Catholic school. The parliamentary investigation into French schools was triggered by dozens of complaints of physical and sexual abuse by staff and religious members from former pupils of Notre-Dame de Betharram, where many pupils lived on site during term. "Aside from the women serving us food at the canteen, everyone was part of the violence," the report quotes Didier Vinson, a former pupil of Betharram, in the southwest of the country, as saying. Other former pupils and ex-students from other schools also recounted similar experiences and accounts of physical violence and sexual abuse in the report. Prime Minister François Bayrou's eldest daughter, who was a pupil in Betharram, in April described being violently hit by a now-deceased priest at the school in the 1980s. In total, some 250 complaints have been filed against at least 26 alleged perpetrators, the report said. At least 90 of the complaints concern sexual abuse by at least 15 perpetrators. Management at the school, which has been renamed Le Beau Rameau, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not known to have commented publicly on the allegations. The allegations have taken on a political dimension, with Bayrou, a former education minister and a prominent politician in the region where the school is located, accused by opponents of lying when he said he did not know about the scandal. His daughter, Helene Perlant, said she had not told her father until the week her allegations were published in Paris Match. Bayrou has repeatedly rejected any wrongdoing, saying he had not been aware of the abuse. REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS The report's authors, Paul Vannier from the hard left France Unbowed and Violette Spillebout, from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, now plan to work on draft legislation that would scrap the statute of limitations for abuse against minors. Vannier said he also wants parliament to act against Bayrou, whom he accused of lying. Many of the Betharram complaints concern alleged abuse committed as far back as the 1950s. The statute of limitations is currently 30 years for rape and 10 years for sexual assault. "This report makes a damning observation, that of a major failure of the state in the control and prevention of violence in schools," Vannier told a news conference. The lawmakers wrote in their report that the situation was worse in private, Catholic schools. They cited "an explicitly stricter educational model" and a "particularly pervasive code of silence". There are about 2 million pupils in Catholic schools in France. French state-run schools are secular under France's constitutional separation of religion and state. Most of the country's private schools are Catholic. The lawmakers want the state to create a compensation fund for victims and acknowledge its responsibility for what they say were insufficient checks on what was going on within private schools, and in particular boarding schools. Among the measures they call for are regular, unannounced inspections of all schools and enhanced training for all school staff on detecting and handling abuse. They say inspections in private schools, unlike for public schools, are way too rare. Asked to comment on the report, government spokesperson Sophie Primas expressed her solidarity with the victims but did not say what new policies the government could adopt. Alain Esquerre, a whistleblower in the Betharram case and a spokesperson for the victims, welcomed the report's findings. "Over the decades, this school did anything and everything with the children," he told RTL radio on Wednesday. (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Ingrid Melander;Editing by Alison Williams)
Straits Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
France must better regulate private Catholic schools, lawmakers say after abuse scandal
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: A view shows the school Le Beau Rameau, formerly known as the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a French Catholic college-high school, in Lestelle-Betharram, near Pau, France, February 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alexandre Dimou/File Photo PARIS - France must better regulate private schools and allow prosecutions for abuse of pupils whenever it was committed, two lawmakers said in a report published on Wednesday after allegations of decades of abuse at a Catholic school. The parliamentary investigation into French schools was triggered by dozens of complaints of physical and sexual abuse by staff and religious members from former pupils of Notre-Dame de Betharram, where many pupils lived on site during term. "Aside from the women serving us food at the canteen, everyone was part of the violence," the report quotes Didier Vinson, a former pupil of Betharram, in the southwest of the country, as saying. Other former pupils and ex-students from other schools also recounted similar experiences and accounts of physical violence and sexual abuse in the report. Prime Minister François Bayrou's eldest daughter, who was a pupil in Betharram, in April described being violently hit by a now-deceased priest at the school in the 1980s. In total, some 250 complaints have been filed against at least 26 alleged perpetrators, the report said. At least 90 of the complaints concern sexual abuse by at least 15 perpetrators. Management at the school, which has been renamed Le Beau Rameau, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not known to have commented publicly on the allegations. The allegations have taken on a political dimension, with Bayrou, a former education minister and a prominent politician in the region where the school is located, accused by opponents of lying when he said he did not know about the scandal. His daughter, Helene Perlant, said she had not told her father until the week her allegations were published in Paris Match. Bayrou has repeatedly rejected any wrongdoing, saying he had not been aware of the abuse. REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS The report's authors, Paul Vannier from the hard left France Unbowed and Violette Spillebout, from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, now plan to work on draft legislation that would scrap the statute of limitations for abuse against minors. Vannier said he also wants parliament to act against Bayrou, whom he accused of lying. Many of the Betharram complaints concern alleged abuse committed as far back as the 1950s. The statute of limitations is currently 30 years for rape and 10 years for sexual assault. "This report makes a damning observation, that of a major failure of the state in the control and prevention of violence in schools," Vannier told a news conference. The lawmakers wrote in their report that the situation was worse in private, Catholic schools. They cited "an explicitly stricter educational model" and a "particularly pervasive code of silence". There are about 2 million pupils in Catholic schools in France. French state-run schools are secular under France's constitutional separation of religion and state. Most of the country's private schools are Catholic. The lawmakers want the state to create a compensation fund for victims and acknowledge its responsibility for what they say were insufficient checks on what was going on within private schools, and in particular boarding schools. Among the measures they call for are regular, unannounced inspections of all schools and enhanced training for all school staff on detecting and handling abuse. They say inspections in private schools, unlike for public schools, are way too rare. Asked to comment on the report, government spokesperson Sophie Primas expressed her solidarity with the victims but did not say what new policies the government could adopt. Alain Esquerre, a whistleblower in the Betharram case and a spokesperson for the victims, welcomed the report's findings. "Over the decades, this school did anything and everything with the children," he told RTL radio on Wednesday. REUTERS
Barnama
26-04-2025
- Barnama
Suspect In France School Attack Described As Loner Who Admired Hitler
A view shows the school Le Beau Rameau, formerly known as the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a French Catholic college-high school, in Lestelle-Betharram, near Pau, France, February 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alexandre Dimou/File Photo PARIS, April 26 (Bernama-dpa) -- The 16-year-old accused of stabbing his classmates at a secondary school in western France, killing one student, has been described by those who knew him as a loner who admired Adolf Hitler, a public prosecutor said on Friday, German news agency (dpa) reported. The knife attack took place on Thursday at a private Catholic school in the city of Nantes. A 16-year-old girl was killed by the suspect, and two other students, aged 15 and 16, were injured. The teen did not give any reasons for his actions after his arrest on Thursday and has been temporarily admitted to a psychiatric ward, said Nantes public prosecutor Antoine Leroy. bootstrap slideshow He said the attacker attended classes as usual that morning before arming himself with a hunting knife and putting on a mask in a school bathroom around midday. He then entered a classroom and fatally stabbed the girl - who was said to have been the only peer with whom he had a positive relationship — 57 times. He then went on to randomly attack other students in a separate classroom. The rampage was stopped by a school IT technician who entered the room and struck the attacker with a chair, then held him at bay until police arrived. Leroy said the teenager had no prior contact with law enforcement. However, his mother had sought help earlier this year for his increasing social isolation, and he had attended six sessions at a counselling centre, he said. School officials had also raised concerns over his admiration for Hitler, prompting a meeting with school management and his mother earlier this month.
Straits Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Daughter of French PM reveals she was abused at scandal-hit school
FILE PHOTO: A view shows the school Le Beau Rameau, formerly known as the Notre-Dame de Betharram institution, a French Catholic college-high school, in Lestelle-Betharram, near Pau, France, February 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alexandre Dimou/File Photo PARIS - The daughter of French Prime Minister François Bayrou has described being assaulted by a priest at a Catholic school in the 1980s, echoing fellow former pupils in complaints that have prompted scrutiny of her father's time as education minister. The eldest of Bayrou's six children, Helene Perlant, 53, a teacher unknown to the public until this week, said in a book published on Thursday that she was beaten up by a now-deceased priest at the school in the 1980s when she was 14. "He grabbed me by the hair, dragged me along the ground for several meters, and kicked me all over my body, especially in the stomach," Perlant told weekly Paris Match in an interview, adding that she was so shocked that she wet herself. Former pupils at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school near Pau in the southwest have filed dozens of complaints against staff and religious members of the school for physical and sexual abuse. Prosecutors in Pau opened a preliminary investigation early last year but said that many of the allegations fell under the statute of limitations, which is 30 years for rape and 10 years for sexual assault. Bayrou has been accused by political opponents of lying when he said he did not know about the extent of the scandal when he was education minister from 1993-1997, although some complaints had been made by then. Perlant said she had not told her father about her own experience until this week. "The real question is one of denial, at the individual and collective level. Not one of lies," Perlant said. Bayrou, who is still the mayor of Pau, sent three of his six children to the school, where his wife taught religious education. He is scheduled to be grilled by lawmakers on May 14 after they opened a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal. 'DEVASTATED' An official from Bayrou's office said the premier was in a state of shock after learning what his daughter went through, but maintained he was not at fault and did not lie, and that the scandal was being weaponised by political opponents. "He is devastated. The doting father he is has just got a big slap in the face," the official told Reuters. "Helene's account backs up what Francois Bayrou said all along: that he didn't know." Some lawmakers have floated threats of a no-confidence vote in Bayrou, who has led a centrist minority government since December last year, and could be toppled if left-wing and far-right parties unite to vote against him. Bayrou told lawmakers in February "he had never been informed of any violence, let alone sexual violence". He later said he had ordered an inspection of the school in 1996 in light of some complaints and that its findings were "reassuring". The special French court that handles cases involving government ministers, the Republic's Court of Justice, has dismissed two reports from opposition lawmakers against Bayrou, saying there was no sign of wrongdoing in his former capacity as education minister at this stage. But the court said it could re-explore the case should more details come to light. A school alumnus, whose name was not revealed, has also filed a legal complaint against Bayrou for failure to report a crime, according to French media. His education minister ordered an administrative inspection of the school in March; its findings have yet to be made public. The author of the book in which Bayrou's daughter tells her story, Alain Esquere, a former pupil at the school, is behind a social media campaign launched in 2023 to collect the stories of alleged abuse at the school between the 1950s and 2010. Contacted by Reuters, management at the school, which has been renamed Le Beau Rameau, did not immediately return a request for comment. The school has yet to make any official statement about the complaints. The scandal has fuelled a broader reckoning in France over the culture and oversight of private religious schools, particularly boarding institutions that have operated with limited transparency. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
