The shadow of justice hangs over the great schools.

On Friday, the Evry prosecutor's office announced that it had opened eight investigations following accusations of rape and sexual assault between students of establishments on the Saclay campus, such as the École Normale Supérieure, the Ecole Polytechnique, CentraleSupélec and the Institute of Optics.

“It is a fundamental movement for the liberation of speech that we are observing with a fairly regular increase in the number of cases reported to us”, commented the president of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles (CGE), Laurent Champaney, "surprised" by the number of surveys.

According to him, the testimonies began to flow from the beginning of the MeToo movement, and he refutes the existence of an omerta intended to protect the reputation of the great schools.

Sharing good practices between schools

"There is this belief especially in the student population but I don't know anyone who would hide facts like that for the sake of the school's reputation," he says.

The president of the CGE, a powerful association which notably brings together 227 Grandes Ecoles, outlines two issues in the cases of sexual violence reported to the management of these establishments.

On the one hand, cases of consent against the background of excessive consumption of alcohol or drugs: “these situations put the victims in very delicate personal situations”.

On the other hand, the emergence of violence within young couples against a backdrop of “violent” sexuality.

If several internal surveys have been launched within large schools with the key results showing a high prevalence of sexist and sexual assaults such as at CentraleSupélec, Polytechnique or AgroParisTech, the CGE has not embarked on an accounting at the level of all his members.

"We share good practices such as how to set up listening cells, awareness tools such as plays or serious games", describes its president.

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Sexual violence: ENS, Supélec… Several rape investigations opened in large schools

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  • Company

  • Sexual violence

  • Rape

  • Investigation

  • MeToo

  • Student