School Leadership Crisis Escalates at French Institution in Morocco

It all started with an incident. During the traditional meeting between parents, teachers and the management of the Claude Monet school group, a French establishment affiliated with the AEFE (Agency for French Education Abroad), in Mohammedia, which was also attended by 5th and 4th grade students on September 21, the issue of the new class schedules came up again insistently, reports Le360. "Several parents asked the same question about the children’s schedules," testifies C., a student’s mother to the site. According to the parents, these schedules are too heavy in the afternoon, as they are preceded by a lunch break of barely an hour which forces the students to stay on site and have lunch in the canteen. "The schedule also shows many schedule changes that are problematic for parents of several children of different grade levels and force them into an infernal gymnastics," explains I., another student’s mother.

The absence of a response from principal Tony Meistermann on their concern provoked the anger of the parents. "But to this recurring question, we only had the disapproving look of the principal who did not wish to respond. [...] A parent then asked the question again, but the principal literally ordered him to be silent," continues C. Tempers flare up. According to witnesses to the scene, the parent then asked the principal to show respect towards him. The principal’s wife, who is also a teacher, asks the other teachers to leave the room. "They left on the orders of this lady, while the CPE (chief education advisor, K. V.) was indicating the exit to them by pointing her index finger towards the door," reports this witness.

The next day, school officials inflict a collective punishment on the students. Teenagers have told their parents who came to pick them up during the lunch break that they had been forced to leave their classrooms to sit on the ground in the courtyard for an hour, in pouring rain, with a ban on getting up under penalty of being punished with detention. "All this out of revenge against the parents! It’s unacceptable!" the parents fume with anger. They organized a sit-in in front of the establishment from noon to 6 p.m. that same afternoon. The next day, two other demonstrations took place between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. in front of the college gates and at 5 p.m. Other demonstrations will also be organized at the same times in the next three days. In a press release, the Union of Parents’ Councils (UCPE), a parents’ association, denounced an event of "unprecedented gravity". "The middle school students were targeted by a principal and his administration" who "used and abused their authority towards our children," the UCPE added.

The association also states that a collective of several parents has been formed to express their protest "against humiliating and unacceptable acts". In a letter, this collective represented by the UCPE and the Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE) calls on the French ambassador to Morocco, Christophe Lecourtier, the French consulate, the French Cultural Cooperation and Action Service (SCAC), the Lyautey high school, which runs the Casablanca-Mohammedia hub, the rectorate, the representative of the AEFE in the French Parliament, as well as the Moroccan authorities, to intervene. For his part, the principal tries to provide clarification. "During the meeting with the 5th and 4th grade parents on September 21, the teachers, the CPE and the head of the establishment felt the expression of verbal violence, intimidation and disrespectful behavior from a parent," he explains, in a letter sent to the parents, before justifying the punishment inflicted on the students.

"The teachers, shocked by the events of the previous day, decided not to teach from 10:30 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. and to take charge of their students in the school courtyard in order to reaffirm the values of respect for people and not to condone the aggressiveness of which they were witnesses," justifies Tony Meistermann. A way for the teachers "to appeal to the parents on the notion of respect for the profession." "During this hour, the students remained in the school yard, in safety under the supervision and responsibility of the teachers and the school life staff," and "no student was punished; it was not raining," he assures, saying he is "sincerely sorry." Not enough to calm the ardor of the parents of students. They demand his immediate resignation and that of his administration. The parent in question "takes note of what he considers to be defamation and intends to file a complaint".