The story of three children, victims of sexual violence by a friend

It would seem unimaginable today that an adult victim of sexual violence would be forced and forced to live with her rapist for months at work, and also intolerable that she would be asked to leave in place of the person who killed her. attacked. However, this is what National Education asked three families whose children had suffered sexual assault and one of them rape at the hands of another child, in a primary school in Hauts-de. -Seine. Parents who asked, like others elsewhere (see our article), that the minor aggressor change schools, without being heard for months.

It all starts in July 2022, when the mother of one of the children, Arnaud, questions her son following a report from a mother who speaks of a “turbulent” child. According to Arnaud, 6 years old, Lény, 7 years old, asks certain students to show their penises, and threatens to “throw them from the playground” if they refuse. He mentions two other children, Laura and Axel, who confirm the facts, which they will later complete by revealing even more serious things.

Laura has been showing reluctance to go to school for several months and is having academic difficulties, according to her mother. In tears, the little girl indicates that Lény touched her genitals, acts qualifying as sexual assault. Later, she also tells him that Lény forced her to kiss him on the penis and that he did the same to her. Lény also allegedly forcibly pulled down Axel’s pants when taking him to the toilet.

The victims grouped in a class

Parents react quickly. In August, Laura’s mother filed a complaint and asked the principal that her daughter not be in the same class as her attacker. Families also write during the summer to the director and the National Education inspector in their sector, who tells them that the school is closed but that an update can be made at the start of the school year with the director. Ultimately, only one of the three families managed to obtain an appointment with the director, the other two being refused.

The director, however, gets active from the start of the school year, organizing a meeting with her team, and measures “to limit the crossing of students and monitor visits to the toilets”, as the Versailles rectorate confirms. An intervention in the school nurse and prevention officer classes is planned “on respect for the body, its integrity and knowing how to say no”. The parents, however, discover that their children, who have indeed been grouped in a class different from that of the attacker, see him in class two afternoons a week, and they understand that they will still encounter him for years to come in the classroom. playground, in the canteen and on Wednesdays.

Facts qualifying as rape are revealed

Because the three little victims have a hard time seeing Lény, who scares them. In September, Arnaud claimed he was sick so he could not go to school, according to his mother. Laura sometimes starts crying for no reason, refusing to go to class, so much so that her mother decides to stop working at the end of October to take care of her on the days she is unwell.

Above all, the children continue to talk, and even more serious facts are revealed by Axel, about Arnaud, and for himself, in the meantime. Facts qualifying as rape, since Lény would have “put Arnaud’s penis in his mouth”, and he would also have taken Axel’s penis in his hands, a gesture which “hurt” the little boy. The parents of Arnaud and Axel file a complaint. Arnaud’s mother believes that her son “seems sadder” and “cries more often”.

The facts were reported by e-mail to the director and the National Education Inspector, who met the two families separately in mid-November. The parents ask that the aggressor child be changed schools, but they are told that they must wait for the prosecutor’s decision, that it is not possible to do that for a primary school child. Both families were offered, according to the parents’ testimonies, to change their child’s school. A proposal that revolts parents. “When there is an attack at work, it is the attacker who is moved, not the victim,” comments Coralie, Arnaud’s mother.

A guide to National Education shunned by National Education

In December, the cases were dismissed due to the young age of the victim. At school, nothing changes, because the judge obviously did not require a change of establishment for Lény. From this moment on, the parents will not stop making this request, for four months which seemed endless to them.

However, there is a guide on sexual violence published by the Ministry of National Education, which seems clear. “It is necessary for the aggressor student to change schools or educational establishments, the victim student must be able to remain in their class,” indicates this guide. “I don’t see what would prevent him from changing schools. I share the family’s distress. But that does not surprise me, because there is the concern not to ostracize certain particular cases,” comments Claude Savinaud, clinical psychologist, who wrote Adolescent sexual violence.

In fact, Lény experiences difficulties at school, to the point that his situation ends up being recognized by the departmental center for disabled people (MDPH). The revelation of these facts does not help the situation, and little by little, he appears more and more isolated in the courtyard. But the fact that Lény also suffers, that he is not responsible for his actions and that he himself is perhaps a victim (see our article) does it justify not protecting the other children and impose on them the sight of a child who terrorizes them?

“Laura will no longer go to school”

Because Laura, for example, is experiencing new crying attacks, including one which was recorded, dating from mid-March, and which 20 Minutes was able to hear, where she said she was “always afraid” that Lény would do the same thing to other children, and that she did not feel safe. The school doctor advises her mother to change schools.

The situation escalated in March and April when the children suffered verbal and physical attacks from Lény. In mid-April, Arnaud came home very upset in the evening, throwing objects, shouting in the apartment, scratching his face and crying a lot, according to his mother. “There is Lény who parades and who crushes all the coats, who crushes the heads and starts to push Anaïs and push Axel. So, I wanted to fight because there was no facilitator close enough to say so, and he started punching me in my glasses,” explains Arnaud, in a conversation recorded by his mother, which we were able to consult. “This is no longer tenable for us” writes Amélie, Laura’s mother, in an email addressed to the inspector and the deputy rector, explaining that her daughter is “anxious”. “As long as a lasting solution is not provided, Laura will no longer go to school,” she wrote the next day, faced with the lack of response. A few days before, an article appeared in a media, which revealed the facts and pointed out the fact that the child attacker is still in the school. On April 22, the deputy rector announced that Lény’s parents “have accepted this decision to change schools.” But it took more than ten months to get there, and perhaps a press article.

Omerta

“The situation that you describe was taken care of according to the appropriate time frame and all the families received support from state and municipal services, committed to ensuring the well-being of the children prevails,” we responds the Versailles rectorate, which has also been singled out in recent months for letters with a threatening tone addressed to families of harassed children.

The parents we interviewed denounce, on the contrary, a form of “omerta”, and a lack of communication between the different parties, particularly between extracurriculars and the school itself. And they regret the tiring procedures, which took up their time when they most needed to take care of their children. “All the time I spent doing emails was time I didn’t have with Arnaud. He felt like I didn’t care about him. Would it have been better if I hadn’t done all this? », Coralie even asks. “All these reminder emails… I wouldn’t have succeeded alone,” says Amélie.