Following reports of a distressing incident linked to the viral ‘scarf game’ that has become infamous on TikTok, Monaco’s teachers’ union has called for more support to be given to the Collège Charles-III on the Avenue de l’Annonciade.
On 26th January, a 14-year-old student was reportedly found unconscious on the fifth floor of the Collège Charles-III. According to the Monaco Matin, the student has been attempting to recreate the dangerous ‘scarf game’ stunt, in which a person strangles themself until the point of passing out, that has been circulated widely on TikTok and was the cause of the death of a 16-year-old in France last year. The student was swiftly taken to the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace, reports the newspaper, adding that an investigation has been launched by the Monaco Police Department.
In the days after the worrying incident, Monaco’s teachers’ union is believed to have asked the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports (DENJS) for assistance in bringing in more staff so as to ensure the better supervision of pupils at the school.
According to the Monaco Matin, there are just 23 qualified “supervisors” working at the school, where there are more than 1,100 students enrolled. The newspaper also reports that the union had already contacted the DENJS regarding concerns about the school’s “security lapses” a year before the recent incident.
“We are facing an increase in physical and verbal threats in colleges,” a representative for the union is quoted as saying in the newspaper, before stressing further worries about the growing issue of inadequate student safety at the school and the normalisation of violence among peers. “Teenagers insult and hit each other gratuitously, push each other, push each other down the stairs… For them, it’s a game and they absolutely do not realise the scope of their actions.”
No official comment has yet been made by the DENJS or the Monaco Government.
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