Moroccan Student’s Expulsion Upheld by French Court Amid Behavioral Concerns

A 12-year-old Moroccan student in CM2 at the public primary school Port-Horel had been removed for five days, from June 10 to 14, 2024, by a decision of the director dated May 28, 2024. His mother deplores this decision and filed a petition with the administrative court of Rennes on June 5 in the context of an interim relief procedure, an emergency procedure intended to sanction "serious" and "manifestly illegal" violations of the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution (freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, etc.), reports franceinfo. In her appeal, she explains that "the director is seriously and manifestly violating the right to equal access to education. [...] The suspension occurs at the time of the end-of-year school trip, and the refusal to allow a child to participate in the trip [...] constitutes discrimination based on his disability." According to his mother’s explanations, this Moroccan teenager who arrived in France in December 2022 suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) "associated with a slight intellectual deficit". According to her, this banishment from the end-of-year trip was going to "harm the already fragile psychological state" of her child, who has already "suffered many traumas before arriving in France". And to deplore: her son had above all "need for appropriate support" and the implementation of the pHARe protocol - a program to fight bullying in schools - "questions the good understanding of the facts and the truthfulness of the statements collected".

To read:

The mother of the Moroccan teenager has repeatedly stated that the "intentional nature of his behavior [...] cannot be retained. "The teaching team has amalgamated behavioral disorders and disruptive behavior," she points out, arguing that her son is "at a decisive age in the acquisition of knowledge and learning to live together". In her appeal, she tried to compel the public primary school in Plérin to welcome her son again, with a penalty of 200 € per day of delay, and that "until the end of his schooling" scheduled for July 5, 2024. In an order dated June 6, 2024 which has just been made public, the judge of the interim relief court of the administrative court of Rennes dismissed the mother of the little Moroccan. While she admits that the "deprivation for a child of any possibility of benefiting from schooling [...] is likely to constitute a serious and manifestly illegal violation of a fundamental freedom", she nevertheless notes that "the decision [...] was taken after noting repeated facts involving [the child] in recent months. "Thus, following a report from a family, the pHARe protocol [...] was implemented within the class [...] at the end of January, as he was aggressive both physically and verbally towards the other children".

The magistrate adds: "The various stakeholders [...] noted that he had difficulties in managing his emotions when he is frustrated, that he had not yet acquired all the social codes, had not yet really accepted or integrated the rules of collective life, which resulted in sometimes inappropriate behavior with his peers going as far as inappropriate gestures". "Several measures have also been implemented in the months preceding the decision [...] to try to stop [the child]’s actions, measures which have not made it possible to favorably change his behavior. [...] In these conditions, an exclusion limited to five days does not call into question the normal continuation of [the child]’s studies for the current year and cannot be regarded as constituting a manifestly illegal violation of the right to education," she rules.

To read: Controversy Erupts as Hijab-Wearing Student Barred from Malaga Classroom

As for the compensation claimed (500 €) by the applicant, for her "psychological damage", the magistrate declares that it "does not belong" to a judge of interim relief to rule on "compensation claims". It will take 18 months to two years for the court to rule on the legality of this decision by the director of the Port-Horel school through a collegiate panel of three judges. If this decision is deemed illegal, "the child’s mother would be entitled to claim compensation."