A second-grader checks his temperature using the thermal camera installed in his high school in Saint-Genis-Laval (Rhône).

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Jérémy Laugier / 20 Minutes

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the only region in France to rely, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, on thermal cameras to allow high school students to know their temperature.

  • Laurent Wauquiez presented this device this Tuesday morning, for the start of the school year René Descartes in Saint-Genis-Laval (Rhône).

A line of fifty curious young people suddenly formed, this Tuesday around 9 am, in the entrance hall of the René Descartes high school in Saint-Genis-Laval (Rhône).

Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, a small thermal camera has indeed been installed there for the start of the school year in order to allow high school students wishing to discover their temperature "infallibly".

"The camera searches your forehead to tell you your temperature in a second," explains Franck Zulian, CEO of Stackr, a company based in Ain providing this camera.

If it is above 37.5 ° C, you are alerted.

You must take a second measurement a minute later and then submit to the health isolation protocol implemented by the National Education if the result is confirmed.

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Test establishment

Like a vocational high school in Clermont-Ferrand and a rural family home (MFR) in Morestel (Isère), the René Descartes high school (1,600 students in total) serves as a test establishment for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the only one to experiment this device in France.

“I think I will take my temperature once a week using this camera,” says Maude (15), who found that she was not feverish for her first day as a high school student.

I won't necessarily have the time to go there more often.

In any case, it is a bizarre return to school after six real months of vacation, a complete break with lessons.

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The "unnatural" forehead temperature measurement

Abdellah (15), hardly tempted by this technology for his part, believes that "the Covid-19 context tarnishes the image that we had for a long time of our future in high school".

The principal of the Saint-Genis-Laval establishment Eric Dupraz is counting on this thermal camera to ensure continuity in this school year which promises to be so special.

“As a trained physicist, I was thinking about taking the forehead temperature of all the students,” he says.

About thirty people would have had to be mobilized and it would have lasted at least 12 minutes each morning.

And then the simple fact of pointing something at a young person is in my opinion unnatural.

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Laurent Wauquiez spoke on Tuesday in front of 560 second-grade students of the René Descartes high school in Saint-Genis-Laval (Rhône).

- Jérémy Laugier / 20 Minutes

This is why he quickly became a candidate when the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region mentioned this initiative to him.

“It is essential not to force students to take their temperature like this,” explains Eric Dupraz.

Likewise, it had to be compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and it is indeed the case.

It's up to us to manage the flow to this airlock in the mornings and to make the students understand that it can reassure them and not add stress to them.

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"The data is completely anonymous"

Present this Tuesday in Saint-Genis-Laval, the president of the region Laurent Wauquiez tried to do the same by speaking in front of 560 pupils of the second: “This test is a unique experience in France.

The goal is to anticipate the first symptoms.

It is your decision whether or not to do this and the data is completely anonymous.

"

In front of the media, Laurent Wauquiez recalls that he wants this experiment to remain “on a voluntary basis”.

“We allow ourselves three weeks of testing on the three establishments before proposing a generalization of this action plan or not, specifies the elected LR.

It is better to act before a cluster rather than after.

In any case, there will be no budgetary constraint for the protection of our students.

"

Free in the three test establishments, this thermal camera otherwise costs 5,000 euros, and double for the larger one, which allows up to 30 simultaneous passages per second.

In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, another special feature of Stackr's thermal camera could soon be considered in the region.

"It is possible to have a connected system, which at the end of each day would give statistics to the principal on the evolution of the high temperatures observed", suggests Franck Zulian.

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