Smoking at school : the debate divides ministers

VALINCO/SIPA

Published the 03.09.2017 at 11: 12 am

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tabaclycéeloi Evin

The cigarette will she make her big comeback in the high schools ? The issue animates the debate in the government. The ministers of Health, Interior and national Education in discussing.

The subject is delicate. If it returns to the front of the stage, it is not only in the context of a struggle between anti-tobacco and defenders of freedom to smoke, but for security issues. After the wave of attacks that rocked France in 2015 and 2016, the assemblies that are created in front of the schools during breaks have started to worry.

Sprain to the decree Bertrand

A tolerance is then installed. To do take any risk to their students, many directors have decided to prohibit the output, even let them smoke in the confines of their high school. Also leaves to contrast with the Bertrand decree of 15 November 2006, reinforcing the Evin law, by extending the prohibition of smoking to the pregnant whole of the educational institutions for minors.

In the past few months, the concern about terrorism is settled, and the students have, in most of them, received again the instructions to get out if they wish to smoke. Except on the part of some headteachers who, before the summer holidays, continued even to allow smoking in their high schools.

A decision that does not please anti-tobacco. “We had to bring the matter before the courts, and the administrative justice has given us reason on two occasions in 2016, summary proceedings and on the bottom “, recalls Stephen Lequet, director of the association, The rights of non-smokers.

The government mégote

The three ministers met last Thursday to discuss the follow up to this hesitation. “There is a reflection on the topic, acknowledges Jean-Michel Blanquer, minister of national Education, to the micro BFMTV. We are discussing with the ministry of Health, because it is a very important topic. But we have not taken any decision. “

In the balance, the safety of adolescent : between the risk of attack deadly and the statistics of smoking, which kills nearly 80,000 people per year in France, but in the silence, the issue is a sensitive one for the government. According to the information of le Figaro, Jean-Michel Blanquer seems to prefer to unload : it would be favourable to leave the headmasters to choose, even to restore smoking in some high schools, ten years after their disappearance.

With the start of the line of fire, the decision must, in one way or another, be made quickly.