While they were quietly gathered in an amphitheater last Wednesday September 5, all the first year nursing students of the Toulouse University Hospital (IFSI) were subjected to a violent hazing, which lasted more than an hour.
“We were covered with everything: water, flour, eggs of course, but also oil, vinegar, fish soup, cat food, shaving cream, betadine … The smell was foul. I felt dirty in every sense of the word, “said a student nurse from Toulouse University Hospital to France 3 Occitanie.
According to multiple testimonies, his promotion was the victim of a violent hazing, yet prohibited by law. Tied by two with scotch tape, some with their hands between their legs, others forced to wear diapers on their heads, tagged “bizut” on their breasts, forced to sing obscene words, prevented from leaving… The future caregivers are under shock.
“Something of domination”
“It was an atmosphere of humiliation. There was really something of domination,” Celia, another student, whose first name has been changed, testifies to AFP. “It wasn’t a mutual situation, like a big egg-throwing battle between promos. We were emotionally exhausted, in a daze for the most part. We kept telling each other We had our mouths full last year, you will eat this year and you will take revenge on others next year“, she explains, anonymously, for fear of reprisals from the school administration itself.
Last year, the same hazing had indeed taken place, without the Institute for Nursing Training (IFSI) reacting. Once again alerted, the unions warned the management of the hospital, which will open an internal investigation. “We immediately alerted the management, and triggered a procedure of imminent danger, forcing the establishment to hold an investigation meeting”, told the Parisian the CGT unionist, Pauline Salingue.
Six months imprisonment and a 7,500 euro fine
For her part, the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, was indignant at this hazing. “Support for @CHUdeToulouse which is opening an internal investigation following acts of hazing on 250 new IFSI students. This type of degrading practice is intolerable. The @gouvernementFR is mobilized alongside those involved in prevention so that student life remains festive “, we can read on his Twitter account.
The culture of hazing, very present in medical studies, has been prohibited by law since 1998. Cases of violence, threats or sexual assault, the fact for a person to bring another, against his will or not, to to suffer or to commit humiliating or degrading acts or to consume alcohol excessively, during demonstrations or meetings related to school and socio-educational environments, is punished by six months of imprisonment and 7,500 euros of fine.
“It’s impossible that a single person in the school was not aware, given the noise it made,” Célia accuses again. “How has IFSI been able to tolerate this when for three days we have not stopped talking to us about the values of the caregiver, empathy, respect?”, She wonders, rightly.
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