The difficult management of the pandemic in high schools
Audio 02:26
The entrance to a high school in France.
(Illustrative photo) Gérard Julien / AFP
By: Cédric de Oliveira
6 mins
The Covid-19 epidemic continues to intensify in Île-de-France and more particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis with the highest incidence rate in the country.
Contaminations are also increasing within the National Education.
Health pressure is intense in schools and staff are on edge.
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For now, the Eugène Delacroix high school in Drancy, in Seine-Saint-Denis, is still open.
Eric Finot teaches French there and he is rather fatalistic about the health situation of the establishment.
“
There we have 15 positive cases among teachers, 50 cases among students out of 2000. There are 5 closed classes.
We feel more and more worried,
”he tells us.
Not feeling safe enough, the teachers therefore chose to exercise their right of withdrawal.
Thus imitating their colleagues from the Blaise Cendrars high school in Sevran, a few kilometers away.
Mobilized for several days, they demand the closure of their establishment and massive screening.
“
We find it absurd that the school is still open.
We have the impression that we are being told
'come to work, come and catch the Covid-19, isolate yourself for seven days and go back to work!'
»Exclaims Clément Bernard, professor of mathematics and representative of the SNES-FSU union in Seine-Saint-Denis.
Elias is a teacher in the same high school and he ended up being infected a few days ago.
According to him, the virus is far too present there.
“
I had to pass the virus on to my wife and my daughter.
I think I caught it at our facility.
In the corridors there are still a lot of people, we meet.
It is inevitable in a school establishment
”, according to him.
Despite the half-groups and some distance lessons, the students meet, in the courtyard, in the corridors or in the canteen.
“
I live with my grandparents,
” says Lina, who is in senior year.
There are far fewer people in high school but I am not reassured p
arce
as I say there is a chance I catch the virus and contagion my family.
"
No establishment seems spared in the department, but most teachers do not understand the apathy of their hierarchy to face the crisis.
“
Let's say that at the management level, we really have the feeling that everything is done so that we cannot make the cross-checks, that we cannot know who is sick.
At this level, it's quite scary,
”sighs Alice, professor of philosophy at Épinay-sur-Seine.
Incomprehension but also sometimes exasperation among some of his colleagues.
“
I think part of our anger today is being treated with this contempt.
At the limit that they tell us
'we can do nothing, we need them' ...
Finally that they recognize an impotence.
We could hear it.
But here, to make us believe that there are no problems when there is a plethora of them ... It's incredible!
Unbelievable !
Alice exclaims.
To alleviate this anger, Emmanuel Macron announced that teachers can be vaccinated from mid-April.
The head of state who may be forced to close schools if the health situation continues to worsen.
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Coronavirus
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