Le Collège-Lycée Cévenol International

The Collège Cévenol—later known as Le Collège-Lycée Cévenol International—was a unique and historic international secondary school located in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire, France. It enrolled day students from the local area, along with a substantial body of regional, national, and international students from around the world who boarded at the school. The last President of its governing board (the AUCC) was Claude Le Vu; the last director was Patrick Sellier.

The Collège Cévenol was founded in 1938 by local Protestant activists and pacifists, and had been shaped from its beginnings by the area's long-standing traditions of resistance to political and religious oppression. From the beginning, the Collège promoted education linked to principles of nonviolence and the development of mutual understanding and solidarity in a socially and ethnically diverse society. The school's founders were also key organisers of the now-famous community effort in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon to shelter and save Jewish refugees during the Second World War.

During its early years, from 1938 to 1971, the school was entirely private and was associated with the Protestant Reformed Church of France, although it welcomed students regardless of their religious beliefs. From 1971 onwards, it was part of the French national education system and was secular. It was organised as an “établissement privé sous contrat d'association” (a private school associated by contract with the state), a category of French schools which are privately managed, but bound to the national system by contracts which provide basic funding and teacher's salaries, and require adherence to national curricula and other standards.

The College became national news in November 2011 because of a brutal crime, 13-year-old Agnès Marin's body was found burned, with stab wounds and raped inside the forest next to the College. A 17-year-old called Matthieu Moulinas who was on parole after raping a girl in 2010 was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

On February 9, 2014, President Andre Gast announced that the College would be closing its doors at the end of the school year, due to mounting financial difficulties and declining enrollment.