(Editorial) “A major treasure”, by Valérie Lion

There are more than 14 million of them in France. These are our children, grandchildren, nephews or nieces. Those under 18 represent a fifth of the French population: less and less visible in our aging society; and so barely audible.

We remained deaf for a long time to their most intimate sufferings. 160,000 are victims of sexual violence each year. Certainly it is not easy to accept the words of an abused child, especially when it involves hearing about acts committed within family or friends. As adults, our duty is to protect them. It starts by listening to them. It took so many years and too many dramatic cases for our institutions – the Church, the school, the police, the justice system – to finally question how to collect the words of these young victims. So that we accept this evidence: if the child is a minor, he is nonetheless a person worthy of all our attention and all our respect. His word counts as much as that of an adult. It simply expresses itself differently. The upcoming vote on the comprehensive law on sexual and gender-based violence against women and children as well as the upcoming distribution by the Ministry of National Education of a questionnaire to students to identify possible victims bear witness to this: a healthy awareness is at work regarding the fragility of minors.

Minors, the vast majority of high school students who have been demonstrating for several weeks are also minors. Is this why the government took time to hear them? Gratuitous violence, which must be firmly condemned, has been involved and political exploitation is never far away. But the demands are legitimate: to have a teacher in class, to work in decent premises, to be considered as people in their own right, capable of expressing an opinion on their learning experience. We cannot ignore their concerns. When the first state budget becomes debt service, in front of National Education, there is cause for concern. When the defense budget follows that of National Education, there is cause for concern. When the reduction in student numbers is first seen as a source of potential savings, there is cause for concern.

Our children, our young people represent a major treasure. Helping them grow in security and confidence to make them want to plan for the future is our biggest challenge today. Our collective responsibility.