Suspended for two months by the rectorate for “attacks on secularism”, the director of a Catholic establishment under contract in Pau obtained Thursday, November 28 from the administrative justice to regain his functions, while it decides on the merits of the case. On September 9, Christian Espeso was suspended from his duties at the head of the Immaculée Conception school complex for a period of three years. He was accused by the administration of having disregarded the principle of secularism “for having authorized the provision of a course entitled “religious education””, and for having organized a march from Pau to Lourdes “which would present a religious dimension”, recalls the administrative court of Pau. Shortcomings that had documented in a long investigation.
Also called into question by the rectorate, the censorship of school textbooks and works “containing sexual passages considered inappropriate”. The sanction was also motivated, according to the same source, by “the inappropriate behavior of the person concerned, marked by violent remarks towards certain members of staff and the practice of malicious management”.
“Non-compliance with contractual obligations”
The summary judge of the Pau court, contacted by the person concerned and the parents of the students, suspended the execution of the sanction on Thursday pending a judgment on its legality by a collegial panel. Emphasizing in his order that the applicant had never been sanctioned until now, even though he has held office for eleven years, the magistrate considers that the potentially “disproportionate” of the sanction, in the state of the elements of the file, is “of a nature to create serious doubt as to its legality”.
It also retains the emergency condition in view of the “risk of dismissal in the short term” of the accused and the impact of the sanction on his personal situation. Christian Espeso’s lawyers, Thierry Sagardoytho and Vincent Ligney, denounced a “empty file, tampered with and oriented”, believing that their client was “sacrificed on the expiatory altar of the recurring attacks against private education”.
At the start of the year, five public and private education unions denounced “non-compliance with contractual obligations” of the Pau establishment towards the State. The rector of the Bordeaux academy took note, Thursday, of the decision of the administrative court. “This is an interim measure and the merits have not been judged (…) We will continue to monitor and support the establishment towards compliance with contractual requirements,” she declared.
Source: www.liberation.fr
