They are about sixty, an entire class of students, on strike against their teachers. Since March 27, students at the famous Vatel school in Paris have refused to go to class to demand the dismissal of teachers accused of "sexual and moral harassment".

The students denounce the behavior of some teachers of the training restaurant open to the public, where students learn in practice the trades of cooking and the dining room in three-week sessions. This strike led to the closure of the restaurant, whose online reservations are closed until May 10.

'Source of anxiety'

The students said they were "still dissatisfied" in a letter to school principal Dov Sebban and seen by AFP. "We want the departure of the people" involved, say the students.

"We do not want these acts to be repeated and for practical application courses to remain a source of anxiety for a majority of students," they explain. "The solutions that you seemed to want to bring us, such as meetings with delegates, which did not take place, or an internal investigation that will be launched at the end of the month, only partially meet our requests," say the students.

Intentional burns, homophobic insults...

The students denounced, during an investigation by the investigative site Médiacités, then to AFP and other media, insults including homophobic, inappropriate gestures, violence (voluntary burns with a saucepan) on the part of two chefs of the restaurant, that of the lunch service and that of the evening. They also accused the pastry chef of sexual harassment.

According to Médiacités, 141 students signed a platform in 2020 reporting "dysfunctions (...) among them the "contempt" and "lack of respect" of the supervisory staff", which remained unanswered. In a letter to students dated 5 April, Dov Sebban admitted "unquestionably unacceptable facts" and promised for September an "alert system and management of possible psychosocial risks".

Questioned by AFP on Tuesday, the management argued that it had "to date", "been seized of any criminal complaint, report of administrative, medical or social services, no nominative claim", and recalled that an alert committee on psychosocial risks will be "operational in September".

First World Group

Created forty-two years ago by Alain Sebban and his wife - who has since died - Vatel presents itself as the world's leading hotel management education group with 52 schools in 32 countries and a turnover of 90 million euros.

After learning of the Vatel Paris student strike, a prestigious Swiss group of hotel and management schools, preferring to remain discreet at this stage, decided to offer Vatel Paris students to continue their studies in one of its establishments.

"We are ready to offer them to continue their studies with us, with the possibility of accessing a partial scholarship to help and motivate them especially after their negative experience," a spokeswoman told AFP, adding that "the whole team was shocked" by the facts reported by the Vatel Paris students.

The strike is to continue until May 5, the last week of practice of the school year, a student told AFP who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals as graduation approached.

  • Local
  • Paris
  • Ile
  • Sexual harassment
  • Harassment
  • Student
  • School
  • Hospitality
  • Violence
  • Violence against women