The investigation into alleged acts of harassment committed within the Saint-Ferdinand Catholic school in Chartres, involving a teacher from the establishment, presumed innocent, ended after eight months of investigations, said Monday , the public prosecutor, Rémi Coutin.
A teacher from the Saint-Ferdinand school in Chartres suspected of harassment
“This 45-year-old teacher was summoned to court on January 6 for acts of moral harassment on ten children. We believe that the facts are sufficiently established and that they require a correctional hearing. “
This court decision came after the suspect was in custody on November 16.
The investigation began in March, after the complaint filed by the parents of a student at the school. They would have mentioned situations of humiliation and mockery.
Humiliations and mockery, according to the complainants
The investigations were then entrusted to the departmental security minors’ brigade. Four alleged victims, students of a fifth grade class, have been identified. Three other parents of students took part in the procedure by providing a medical file indicating five to twenty days of temporary interruption of work concerning their children.
According to our information, one of the families would have even sent a letter to Pope Francis to denounce the alleged facts. The teacher was taken into custody for the first time on August 31.
This forties with a clean criminal record was left free during the preliminary investigation phase. She participated in the start of the school year in 2021, provoking, according to our sources, the indignation of the parents of the children involved in this case.
Four signs had been installed in front of the school to protest against his presence in early September for what was his third return to Saint-Ferdinand. The climate was apparently tense, during this new school year, between the parents supporting the teacher and those demanding her suspension.
Suspicions of harassment at Saint-Ferdinand school, in Chartres: the teacher suspended again
Evelyne Mège, academic director of the national education services of Eure-et-Loir, then suspended the teacher “in order to preserve it”, she explained. “It is not a sanction, but a precautionary measure. “
During the investigation, the minors’ brigade in particular retraced the course of this teacher. “The investigators took advantage of these two and a half months to carry out additional hearings”, indicates the public prosecutor.
“We have identified ten victims. Five children from Saint-Ferdinand school, for acts committed between September 1, 2020 and April 4, 2021, and five other children from Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais public school, between 2017 and 2018, when she was manager. According to the prosecutor, the teacher would not have disputed the facts with which she is accused, but by not qualifying them as harassment.
“No criminal offense”, according to the defense
Contacted, the Bâtonnier Vincent Rivierre, the teacher’s lawyer, gives his vision of the case: “I deplore the summons of my client when she has not committed any criminal offense and has nothing to be ashamed of. The investigation did not reveal any serious facts. Students satisfied with their teacher are much more numerous than those instrumentalized by their parents. We will go to court to demonstrate his innocence. “
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Contacted, the lawyers of the alleged victims did not wish to speak this time. In September, Me Bertrand Lebailly and Me Anne-Gaëlle Le Roy had evoked “denigrating and intimidating remarks, racist remarks, humiliations, cries, mockery” having caused “psychological disorders in children”.
Contacted, Evelyne Mège, did not respond to our request concerning the possible maintenance of her suspension until the hearing.
The public prosecutor specifies that he sets the fight against bullying in schools as a priority: “It is a topical and social issue. The prosecution will approach the National Education to improve the fight against harassment. “
Thierry delaunay
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