A high school student at the boarding school of Jean Rostand high school in Caen was targeted by a religious attack this Thursday, October 13, 2022. The student, of Muslim faith, discovered his torn quran as well as his veil thrown in a trash can returning to his room. It would be an isolated act according to the headmaster of the establishment, who spoke internally via an e-mail sent to students and teaching staff to denounce “an unworthy, intolerable, legally reprehensible act“.
According to information from our colleagues at Freedomwho revealed the information, the mother of the high school student did not wish to file a complaint for the moment “in a calming way“. The perpetrator is not yet known. It is impossible to say whether it is a student or a member of the educational staff.
We have been working since last night to both show our empathy with the student victim, who suffered this lamentable act, and to make our internal students assimilate all the values of mutual respect, tolerance, that we carry and that we want to see shared by our entire school community. Excerpt from an e-mail from Sébastien Duval Rocher, principal of Lycée Jean Rostand
A listening space within the establishment
The Caen Public Prosecutor’s Office was seized by the Director of the Academic Inspectorate, under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Armelle Fellahithe academy inspector in Calvados “strongly condemns an attack on freedom of conscience, an intolerable act that deprives a student of her fundamental rights“. She clarifies that “boarding students have the opportunity to practice their worship individually, for example in their internet room, which is a private area“.
The management of the establishment has set up this Friday a listening space within the establishment. Interventions by teachers in history, geography, philosophy and EMC classes are already planned for next week, as part of a “week of freedom of expression.”