Stéphane Burgatt (correspondent in Nîmes) // Photo credit: Fiora Garenzi / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 7:45 p.m., March 6, 2024

Nursery school, primary school and middle school find themselves in the middle of all the traffic and shootings in the Chemin-Bas-d'Avignon district, in Nîmes.

This Wednesday afternoon, school directors were received at the prefecture, while teachers and parents of students gathered outside.

Safety is far from being won in the Chemin-Bas-d'Avignon district of Nîmes.

Many mothers fear so much for the safety of their children that many continue to keep them at home.

"I'm afraid that a tragedy will happen or worse: a stray bullet. We're afraid of all that. We're no longer safe. There's shooting right in front of the school. But I heard the shootings at home too. It's a panic on board to get our children back. It's not going well, it's not going well anymore.", laments this mother.

This Wednesday afternoon, the directors of the Georges-Bruguier school, located at the heart of the shootings, were received at the Nîmes prefecture.

Outside, teachers, union representatives and some parents gathered to show their anger.

“I don’t know if I will still be able to come back next Monday”

And this insecurity has lasted for almost two weeks.

The majority of the school's teachers are still on leave, like Nathalie who doesn't know if she will have the courage and strength to start again next week.

>> READ ALSO -

 Incivility, drug trafficking... In Bordeaux, residents of the Capucins district are fed up

"I don't know if I will still be able to come back next Monday. I don't know. I'm seeing my therapist tomorrow. And talking about it, I can tell you that it's not easy. Which adds the shock is the slowness of the response provided. Sounding the alarm for several years, I have the impression that it is not really taken into account", says, disconcerted, this professor.

The prefecture promises to maintain the current security system.

The town hall has already, for its part, raised the school gates in order to combat intrusions and entry to the establishment.

The latter must also be moved soon to no longer face deal points.

But everyone warns, parents and teachers alike, that we will simply have to think about relocating the school out of this neighborhood.