After two months of confinement, two companies of students from the Montluçon gendarmerie school have found the Richemond barracks since Monday, May 18. Two others will return next Monday.
Nine companies on the ground during containment
During the confinement on March 17, the gendarmerie school welcomed 930 students from nine companies. They were sent as reinforcements to operational units or gendarmerie companies in Montluçon, in Creuse (Guéret and Aubusson) and in the south of the Cher (Saint-Amand-Montrond).
Five companies have been affected and will not return to the Richmond barracks. Students from the four other companies less advanced in their training only completed internships. They are the ones who are coming back now.
Different missions during confinement
During the confinement period, the gendarme students in operational units discovered missions related to the situation.
The gendarmes would not carry out their traditional mission 100% because there were fewer accidents, less delinquency. The students went to contact people to alert them to the violence taking place at home, cyber attacks, scams against retirees or to hear from isolated people. They were not used to these missions but we had positive feedback from them
General Philippe Durand (Director of the Montluçon gendarmerie school)
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Forty-seven students remained at the barracks
Forty-seven students stayed at school to ensure the security of the barracks while respecting the sanitary protocol and barrier gestures. The managers worked on site or remotely to “prepare for the aftermath” as the school director specifies.
Only five companies as of June
To resume the initial training of its students in complete safety, the gendarmerie school, like all establishments, has implemented social distancing measures.
“We are going to split everything. Usually each company has a building. There, the students of a company will be spread out in two buildings to respect the physical distance in the modules (the rooms, N.D.L.R.). It’s the same for lessons and during meals. The school will operate at 50% from normal. We will have five companies instead of eleven and there will be twice as many executives to supervise them. “
If the five companies occupy ten buildings, the eleventh will be used for people passing through or to isolate students who show symptoms of Covid-19.
Nearly a thousand Montluçon gendarme students thrown into the field to fight against the coronavirus
Wearing a mask for new pupils integrated in June
From Monday June 8, new promotions will arrive in Montluçon every two weeks. In July and August, four courses for voluntary assistant gendarmes (GAV) will take place at the school before a last one in September.
All newcomers must undergo a fortnight and therefore wear a mask during this period.
We will operate by module. The students who will share the rooms will always be together for lessons and meals. It is to do like sort of clusters. That way if there is ever a student with symptoms, only a small group will be set aside.
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Modified initial training
The security protocol will also have an influence on the initial training of gendarme students. Their theoretical training at school will be shorter and they will go earlier to the operational units.
“We are on another way of doing things with a course layout. We start with the principle of maximum precaution. There will be an evolution over the year but there will not be eleven companies at school in 2020. If all goes well and there is no closure, we should incorporate seven promotions of students gendarmes and five GAV courses ”, specifies General Philippe Durand.
Florence Farina
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