Petition Launched to Prevent Expulsion of Committed High School Senior in France

Enrolled for two years at the Lycée Les Bruyères in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (Seine-Maritime), Kenza received an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) at the end of December 2020. "I was supposed to leave France on January 18 [2021]. I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t sleep anymore. I have a knot in my stomach. I tell myself that I can be arrested anytime," she confides. The high school student is still clinging on. Her wish, she will say, is to get her baccalaureate and stay in France. "I continued to study, even though it weighs on me, she says. I want to stay! I am attached to France and its values. If I chose France, it is because I have the goal of succeeding in my life and having a brilliant future."

Kenza’s situation has touched many people. A petition has thus been launched to support her and allow her to regularize her situation. "We can only deplore this decision, which comes at a time when Kenza is about to finalize her baccalaureate in a few months. We regret it all the more since she is a particularly committed student with her classmates and deeply involved in the life of her class and her high school," it is written.

Some images on the website of the Euroscola competition, in which European Union establishments participate, also testify to her commitment and the irony of her fate when she says "if I were European..." "Kenza is a very committed student," says Patrick Lopes, teacher-librarian at the Lycée Les Bruyères, who supervised her participation in the Euroscola high school competition. She even won this competition with several classmates.

"This is a perfectly integrated student who deserves, like any student her age, to benefit from the fundamental right to education and above all not to be deprived of it by a decision that we consider unjust," testifies Fatima El Khili, deputy mayor of Rouen and teacher at the high school. She plans to send a letter to the prefect to intervene in favor of Kenza and discuss with the mayor of Rouen. "I will request a gracious appeal," the elected official said.