A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #364 - Antipatriarchy - Suicide of Caroline Grandjean: The National Education System Claims Another Victim (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On the first day of the school year, Caroline Grandjean, a school 
principal in Cantal, took her own life after months of lesbophobic 
harassment. Beyond horror and sadness, there is anger: anger toward the 
educational institution that added the violence of indifference to those 
already suffered. Because her suicide, as brutal as it was, comes as no 
surprise to anyone. Before her death, the teacher had repeatedly 
expressed the feelings of abandonment and humiliation she felt toward 
the National Education system. Our support goes out to her wife and 
loved ones.

It all began in December 2023, when the sign "Dirty Lesbian" was 
discovered in the school. The principal alerted the inspectorate, but 
received only the response that she must "remain professional." She took 
a few days off work and filed a complaint against the crow for the first 
time-five complaints were filed in total, all of which went unanswered.

In March 2024, after a note reading "Dyke = pedophile" appeared, the 
inspector quickly called her "to make her understand that she shouldn't 
have taken a leave of absence, so that the school could continue to 
run." At the end of the month, a death threat was discovered in the 
school mailbox. The academic director suggested transferring her far 
from home, "for her protection."

In early 2025, the teacher contacted comic book author Christophe 
Tardieux, aka Remedium, who was collecting testimonies from school 
principals in distress. When her story was published in the album Cas 
d'école, the French National Education system went so far as to file a 
defamation complaint against the author, a procedure during which 
Caroline Grandjean was summoned to the police station as a witness-an 
additional humiliation[1].

A hetero-patriarchal institution
How could anyone be surprised that, after so much minimization, 
prevarication, and even dissuasion from the institution, the school 
principal finally decided to put an end to her ordeal? How could anyone 
be surprised when this comes on top of the lack of response from 
colleagues, the students' families, and the city council? Rather than 
protecting its officials from homophobic violence, the French National 
Education system prefers to assume its role as a crushing machine.

Similar cases in schools, while not always fatal, occur too frequently 
for us to consider them simple failures of the system. We can talk about 
teachers, but we mustn't forget the rest of the staff, and of course the 
students-in recent years, we think of the suicides of Lucas, Dinah, and 
Avril. These various victims all have in common the fact that they are 
LGBTI, that they asked for support, and that they didn't receive enough.

Caroline Grandjean's death moves me all the more because it brings me 
back to what I experienced at the training center where I taught. The 
summons by the director who asked me "not to be provocative," the 
misgendering and refusal of my superiors to use my chosen first name, 
which ultimately led me to resign. Homophobia and transphobia in the 
National Education system, and more generally in the field of training, 
are systemic. Teachers are expected to convey the values of the Republic 
and uphold their duty of neutrality-and by neutrality, we mean, among 
other things, not contravening the cis-hetero norm.

Faced with institutional violence, many hide and decide to endure the 
closet in silence. Others, like Julia Torlet, a teacher and president of 
SOS Homophobie, take the risk of being visible and offer LGBTI students 
role models with whom they can identify and speak out[2].

For my part, I believe that the National Education system should 
consider LGBTI teachers as an opportunity rather than an embarrassment. 
Not out of some hollow liberal principle of diversity, but because we 
are on the front lines of awareness of the different forms of oppression 
that permeate the institution. At a time when reactionaries seek to 
impose their authoritarian and traditionalist vision, it is more time 
than ever to move towards an education that takes social violence into 
account rather than making it invisible. Organizing ourselves to 
politicize education is urgent: resources are being developed to raise 
awareness and train staff[3].

So that schools are no longer places of suffering but spaces of care. So 
that victims can stop being victims.

Johanna (UCL Antipatriarchy Commission) Validate

[1]See the article "Suicide of Caroline Grandjean: the endless 
harassment of a school principal," Libération, September 2, 2025.

[2]Opinion piece, "National Education doesn't want to see queer 
teachers, so let's show that we exist," Libération, September 12, 2025.

[3]See, for example: Queereducation.fr.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Suicide-de-Caroline-Grandjean-L-Education-nationale-fait-une-nouvelle-victime
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