Emergency aid: Justice prohibits smoking area in a high school – The Point

There will be no smoking area in the Paul Lapie high school in Courbevoie. The Cergy-Pontoise Administrative Court suspended Thursday referred the decision of the principal of an institution of Hauts-de-Seine to allow students to smoke in the courtyard because of the state of emergency and the threat attack. In an order which Agence France-Presse has obtained a copy, the court asked the headmaster of Paul Lapie high school Courbevoie “to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Public Health Code, banning smoking in schools.”

After the attacks of 13 November, the Education and Interior ministries had provided, via circulars, interim tolerance in the name of student safety to avoid the crowds of high school students outside establishments. Two associations, non-smoking law and the national committee against smoking, then had brought the case on legal grounds, hoping to jurisprudence and to end this exception “illegal.” “This is the confirmation of the illegality of all smoking areas in schools, including in non-enclosed spaces,” responded Stephen Lequet, responsible for institutional relations within the non-smoking law. The association estimates that “a high school on two” is concerned with the creation of these smoking areas “illegal”.

Other affected schools

Without waiting for the decision of the justice, the Minister of Education, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, had clarified the government’s position last week: “smoking is prohibited in schools So it is not because we want to avoid the crowds,. particularly around schools, which must allow students to smoke inside the schools, “said she said. “In law as politically, the issue is resolved, although there is still work to convince the principals,” said Mr. Lequet.

The Administrative Court of Cergy-Pontoise, who spoke under an emergency procedure, has yet to settle on the bottom. In addition to this application for interim relief, the two associations tobacco seized, for the same reason, the Paris Administrative Court cases of Voltaire and high schools Rodin in Paris. The court will consider the issue on 9 May.