A 330-page report by the French National Assembly’s commission on school violence concludes that Prime Minister François Bayrou showed a “défaut d’action” when, as education minister in the 1990s, he was informed of abuses at the college-lycée Notre-Dame de Bétharram in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques but failed to intervene. The investigators say the omission allowed mistreatment—including physical and sexual assault—to persist for years. The document, adopted on 25 June and made public on 2 July, portrays an “État défaillant” unable to protect pupils or hold private institutions to account.
The commission, led by deputies Violette Spillebout and Paul Vannier, gathered testimony from 135 witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents. It notes roughly 250 complaints lodged by former Bétharram pupils and cites 80 collectives of victims that have emerged nationwide, suggesting systemic shortcomings across both public and private schools.
To address the failings, the report issues 50 recommendations, including creation of a national compensation and support fund for victims, extension of limitation periods for non-reporting of violence against minors, and a potential review of making certain offences imprescriptible. It calls for annual inspections of boarding schools, full reviews of private establishments at least every five years, randomised student interviews during audits and a ban on corporal punishment enshrined in the Education Code.
Bayrou’s office rejected the commission’s finding, asserting he ordered an inspection of Bétharram the day after the first formal complaint in 1996 and that the resulting report cleared the institution. The report nevertheless intensifies political pressure on the prime minister, while lawmakers prepare to draft legislation to turn the recommendations into binding law.
After #Bétharram, François #Bayrou caught up in the #Pélussin scandal
The “Pélussin” affair broke out in 1995 in a Catholic boarding school in Loire. And here too, François Bayrou ignored whistleblowers, according to documents found by Mediapart.
🗣️ “François Bayrou has his responsibility, but he is not the only one. To reduce the Bétharram case to François Bayrou is to be wrong.”
🎙️ Alain Esquerre, spokesperson for the victims of Bétharram, at the microphone of @amandine_begot in #RTLMatin
🔵 EXCLUSIVE | What's in the report of the Bétharram Commission of Inquiry
The investigation by two deputies denounces a “failure at all levels” of the chain of public authorities in the scandal of violence within the establishment
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The deputies who investigated violence in schools after the scandal at the Collège-Lycée in Bétharram (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) pointed out in their report published on Wednesday a “failure to act” by François Bayrou at the time, who was able to let the violence “continue”.
