– ‘We feel abandoned’ –
Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said last week that “during this period of heightened security, high school students must simply be asked not to smoke”.
“According to the minister it is a difficult balance and we must remain pragmatic,” a spokeswoman at the education ministry told AFP earlier this week.
Vallaud-Belkacem’s remarks were slammed by the main school principals’ union SNPDEN, which said it felt “abandoned” by the education ministry.
SNPDEN national secretary Joel Lamoise told AFP the union had “noted” the court’s ruling, but he maintained it was “unrealistic” to ask pupils not to smoke during school hours.
“We have been placed in a difficult situation, this circular allowed us to create special zones inside schools, we feel abandoned now,” he said.
Lamoise has argued that “the terrorist risk is much greater right now than the health risk. Between two diseases we are trying to deal with the worst.”
A study in June 2015 showed that one in three 17-year-olds smoke daily in France.
The mother of a 16-year-old boy in the central city of Lyon, who is also a lung specialist, has filed criminal charges against his school in a separate case.
She told AFP that security fears were “not a reason to let them smoke inside. We are not going to let them bring a bottle of vodka inside because it is dangerous to drink on the pavement.”
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