Delphine Masset is the mother of two children, the youngest of whom is in 6th grade at a college in Montpellier. But since the start of the school year in September, her son is harassed by six classmates. Blows, insults, bullying, humiliation… This mother alerted the CPE, the deputy principal, the principal without really feeling heard. It took him five months to successfully get his son to change schools.
Delphine Masset testified this Monday on France Bleu Hérault.
So your son was harassed, how did that translate, by what kind of facts?
From the second day of school he got strangled, he got hit above in class, where the students were not worried by the teachers. They were just asked to sit down. He was insulted, insults that I will not repeat, too rude for me. The only time he managed to defend himself in the hallways, the other child fell, went to complain. It was my son who had an hour of glue.
After that it continued. He has been hit, he was insulted almost daily. And at the end of January outside of school, he was caught by two of his stalkers, one of whom was saying to the other “Go ahead, throw it under a car”. It’s been so far.
“He didn’t want to go back to school anymore, he withdrew into himself.”
How did your child return? What did that mean for him?
It translated to already a big drop in his grades. He went from an average of 16 to 9, knowing that he is a child with high intellectual potential. He really broke his face. It resulted in tears, stress. He didn’t want to go to school in the morning. After the Christmas holidays, he didn’t want to go back there at all. He said “I don’t want to go on the street because I risk running into children who are from the neighborhood.” He didn’t want to go out anymore, he withdrew into himself.
We imagine that you reacted quite quickly as a mother?
Yes, in September, I called school life who kindly answered me that indeed, these facts were not normal. Except that they did not report anything at all to the head of the establishment. I managed to get the head of the establishment because after yet another insult in history class, the history teacher called me, and then gave me the email of the deputy director who received. But that was already in December. I had also made a note to the CPE in November who told me ” I remember you“. I’m still waiting for his phone call. I saw the deputy director just before the Christmas holidays who phoned the parents. Two of the six harassers stopped, four continued. And it went up in violence, physical as verbal. It was harassment. My son had no more friends because the other classmates, not wanting to be bullied, turned their backs on him to protect themselves, which I completely understand. My son was completely isolated.
“Obviously there is an acceptable loss quota for the rectorate.”
So, you were still heard by the headteacher at one point since he took his phone to call the parents.
It wasn’t enough. So I called the rectorate. I came across the person in charge of the anti-harassment service to whom I asked for a change of establishment almost immediately, because it had been going on for four months and I wanted it to stop. And he made it clear to me that my son was not an emergency. He said sentences to me that shocked me extremely. When I told her “But finally, what are we waiting for? That the children end up in the pages of the various facts?. He responded to me “Oh yes, ma’am, it happens!“Obviously, for this person, there is an acceptable quota of loss. I was extremely shocked.
I emailed regularly. Each time there was a fact at school I sent an email to the deputy director who did not necessarily take the time to answer me. Except when I told him I was going to file a complaint. And that’s what I did. I wrote a letter to the public prosecutor against the establishment. I filed two complaints against the children. A complaint against the head of the rectorate’s harassment department who, for me, was not doing his job and putting my son in danger. These people did not answer me. I ended up calling the Ministry of National Education.
I had a gentleman on the phone, charming. And everything is unlocked: in five days, my son was able to change schools.When I called the rectorate to explain that I had permission to change my school son, I was treated to some very shocking sentences: “Do you think his grades are going to go up because we’re changing him? Do you think life is going to be rosy?”
I ended up winning, but it was a fight that still lasted five months. Hard for the child, hard for the whole family. And I think five months is too long. We should listen to parents a little more. A gentleman who is responsible for the anti-harassment service and who has so little compassion for families, I find that quite absurd.
Today your son who has joined a new establishment, does he feel good?
Yes he feels good, he has already made friends, he is delighted.
“You should never give up, you have to file a complaint.”
You testify to show that it is still a fight which we make a priori a national priority. But in reality, is it very complicated?
So yes, I want to testify because I also want to send a message to the other parents. We must not lower our arms, we must strike higher. Do not hesitate to file a complaint. The Ministry of National Education told me that I had knocked on the right door, but that indeed before, it was necessary to go through complaints, through letters to the public prosecutor, so that they could rely on facts anyway. Because indeed, we can’t either say that the child is being harassed if it’s not true, just because we want to go to a better establishment. That, I hear very well.
“If I cry in the principal’s office and it gets out there, it will be even worse for me.”
In the rectorates and even in the colleges, even if they have the impression of doing things because they have called the parents anyway. In this case, in this college there, it is not severe enough. It’s too lax, it’s waiting too long, there’s too much waiting and the children are suffering on the side. And when, as a parent, I said it, I was told “your son does not say the same thing“. My son did not tell them the same thing because he told me “but if, if I cry in the office and it gets out, it’s going to be even worse for me.” And that, they failed to see. They failed to translate it.
They still told me that they solved more than 20 cases of school harassment since September. It was December, which is huge. So I hope that in all colleges, it’s not the same there. It is still a college in a sensitive neighborhood. So I think there may be more in this college than in others.
But despite everything, the facts are not taken harshly enough. There was no disciplinary council. There were no blames for the children. I’m not even sure that the parents were summoned and I think it was too light.
“Today, he needs a psychological follow-up.”
And it is absolutely necessary that parents continue to fight so that there are fewer children in this type of difficulty because it spoils a whole school year. And behind, you have to see a psychologist. Me, my son is going to see a psychologist to be able to turn the page on this. Because even though right now he’s relieved, there’s still been five months of trauma, of being belittled every day to getting hit regularly. Psychological follow-up is needed.
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