Multiple Schools Closed Due to Bedbug Infestations, Including Marseille and Pontet

Schools are not immune to bedbugs. National Education announced Friday that five educational establishments were closed after detection of pests. This figure is established thanks to feedback provided by the academies. The five closed schools are located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), in Pontet (Vaucluse), in Louhans (Saône-et-Loire)in Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) and in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (Vosges).

While he affirmed earlier in the morning that two establishments in Strasbourg and Haguenau (Bas-Rhin) had also been closed due to pests, the ministry is making a correction this afternoon and removing them from its list. The rectorate of the Strasbourg academy assures France Bleu Alsace that cases of bedbugs were in fact spotted last week in boarding schools in Strasbourg (8 rooms were closed on Sunday evening and treated “in week) and Haguenau (“a closed room” temporarily before being processed).

Bed bugs reported in other establishments, without requiring closure

Bed bugs have also been reported at other educational facilities, without requiring a complete closure of the structure. The ministry mentions in particular: the Elisa Lemonnier high school in the 12th arrondissement of Paris ; the Germaine Tillion high school in Montbéliard (Doubs) or one “cleaning of the boarding school is planned for the All Saints’ Day holidays” ; “the boarding school of a structure which has welcomed students from the Jules Marouzeau college in Guéret (Creuse)” or some “solutions were found internally to ensure accommodation for the 32 students concerned” and of “four boarding rooms closed for three days in September in a high school in Lorient (Morbihan)” with “twelve students concerned“.

Initially, the ministry also mentioned a case in a high school in La Ferté-Bernard (Sarthe), but the establishment made a correction to France Bleu Maine. The Robert Garnier high school assures that it was initially a question of suspicion of bedbugs in a dormitory. Management called in a specialist company to inspect this part of the boarding school, but no bedbugs were detected. These were actually fleas located only around a bed.

Concerning the Elisa Lemonnier high school in Paris, a diagnosis carried out by a company in charge of detecting bedbugs found that around fifteen classrooms, offices, the CDI, a changing room and several other premises were infested, according to a letter from the principal obtained by Agence Radio France. These rooms were “caulked to prevent spreading“pests and while waiting for the entire establishment to be treated”on Monday evening“Faced with this situation, a teacher and the establishment’s FCPE indicate that some teachers are refusing, like Thursday, to teach this Friday, but not all of the teachers.