SNFOLC denounces Montpellier principal over absence policy
CRS officers stood outside Lycée Jules-Guesde and Lycée Clemenceau in Montpellier on Thursday morning, October 15, to prevent student blockades and force attendance. Inside the school, a message sent by the principal to parents announced that student absences would soon be regularized, except for identified blockers.
That digital communication triggered an immediate union response. The local section of the Syndicat national Force ouvrière des lycées et collèges (SNFOLC) sent a letter on Wednesday, October 14, to the rector of the Montpellier academy, Carole Drucker-Godard, denouncing the measure as a disguised administrative sanction.
Blockade Participants Face Permanent Marks on Records
The messaging sent to families at Lycée Jules-Guesde established a clear divide in how student attendance records will be handled following recent demonstrations. While general absences tied to the mobilization are slated for clearance, students flagged as participants in the blockades face permanent marks on their administrative files.
The union argues that this selective amnesty creates an unequal standard among students. According to the SNFOLC letter sent to the academy rector, the administration has yet to disclose the concrete criteria, material evidence, or identification methods used to single out specific teenagers as participants in the blockade.
Union Challenges to Legal and Regulatory Grounding
The SNFOLC leadership formally requested that Rector Carole Drucker-Godard intervene immediately to halt what the organization terms a climate of pressure and intimidation. The union’s correspondence centers on three specific legal questions regarding the disciplinary process deployed at the Montpellier facility.
First, the union asks what material elements and proofs justify labeling an individual student a blocker. Second, the text questions the protocol and origin of the internal reporting used to compile the target list. Third, the union challenges the legality of the measure, asserting that selective absence regularization constitutes an arbitrary administrative sanction that violates the principle of equality.
School Administration Ignores Requests for Policy Clarification
Efforts to obtain comment from the administration of Lycée Jules-Guesde regarding the criteria for identifying students or the legal basis of the message sent to parents have yielded no response. The principal of the establishment did not reply to inquiries concerning the disputed attendance policy.
With the academic inspectorate yet to publicly clarify the boundaries between valid absence regularization and targeted disciplinary tracking, the union maintains its demand for the complete cessation of discriminatory practices against mobilized students.