The former Minister of National Education appears in an episode of the series Askip, broadcast online this Wednesday, November 6, to help a schoolboy who is the victim of school bullying. Gabriel Attal intends to remain very engaged on the subject, the day after the launch of his foundation to fight against the phenomenon.
A symbolic performance for Gabriel Attal. The former head of government plays his own role as former Minister of National Education in the series Askip on France 2. The episode which features him was published this Wednesday, November 6 on the France Télévisions website, on the day of the launch of the foundation of the president of the Renaissance deputies against school bullying, “Faire face”.
The opportunity to see Gabriel Attal interact freely with a schoolboy during a visit to a school.
“It’s hell, we want to die”
The young boy, who does not recognize the minister, then discusses with him the mockery of which he is the victim, notably being treated as “Quasimodo every day”,
“I sleep more, I eat more, if I could stop coming to school, I wouldn’t come anymore. It’s hell, we want to die,” the teenager confides to him.
These words resonate all the more strongly as several young people have killed themselves in recent years after being victims of school bullying, from Lindsay who committed suicide at the age of 13 in May 2023 to Nicolas, 15, who hanged himself in Poissy, just a few days after the start of the school year in September 2023.
“You have to talk about it to someone, a teacher, a supervisor, a CPE. You have to talk about it,” insists Gabriel Attal, in this television episode.
“We are never alone” in the fight against school bullying
A few minutes later, the minister, accompanied by his communications advisor Louis Jublin, who also plays himself, asks him to go on stage before his own speech.
“It’s very hard to be the target. I’ve learned something, it’s that you’re never alone, never,” the schoolboy says to the applause of his classmates.
The episode was filmed in complete secrecy last December, when Gabriel Attal was still Minister of National Education. A few weeks later, an executive from France Télévisions confided to BFMTV.com that his acting was “very touching”.
An episode filmed before Attal moved to Matignon
The subject directly concerned Gabriel Attal during his adolescence. He had a long time confided his own difficult experience “at the end of college” at the end of 2023 in the show Sept à Huit on TF1.
“It was a student of the establishment who had opened this site on which it was necessary to post comments on the physical appearance of the students. And I, on this occasion, experienced a flood of insults and insults, that lasted several months and it was very violent,” he said at the time.
The television episode was placed on “stand-by” with the appointment of Gabriel Attal to Matignon, a few weeks after filming. His departure from rue de Grenelle coupled with the launch of his foundation and the day to combat school bullying this Thursday, November 7, clearly made it possible to find a window of opportunity for broadcasting.
Gabriel Attal was particularly involved in the subject during his visit to rue de Grenelle, notably launching a questionnaire to detect cases of harassment among students.
Present at the launch of Gabriel Attal's foundation, the current Minister of Education Anne Genetet, one of his close friends, confirmed on BFMTV that this questionnaire, proposed a year ago to students, would be renewed each year.
3018: a unique number to combat harassment
Faced with a situation of school bullying or cyberbullying, young people, parents and professionals can be supported. Since September 2023, 3018 has become the single platform to deal with situations of harassment at school or online. Listening is provided by psychologists, lawyers and specialists in digital tools.