Emmanuel Macron calls on parents to keep their children at home when some of the perpetrators of the violence that followed Nahel’s death in recent days are very young, teenagers. And in principle, everyone seems to agree on leaving a school in Malakoff.
The violence of recent days in this popular district of Malakoff in the Hauts-de-Seine, everyone has seen them. “I have not slept well”, entrust a child. “Fireworks and they burn the trash cans”says another, excited. “We get up every ten minutes. We hear them, they shout and more! We can’t sleep in peace. We’re very scared”she finally breathed.
>> Injured police, looted stores, burned buildings… The point region by region after this fourth night of violence
These abuses anger Delphine. This mother hides her car every evening, for fear of finding it burned the next morning. Yes, according to her, it is up to the parents to manage their teenagers. She considers as “it makes perfect sense to keep your children at home. It’s everyone’s responsibility”she says, echoing the words of Emmanuel Macron.
“I have a 17-year-old girl. She’s being watched. If I let her go out, it’s until a certain time. She comes in and if she’s not there, I’ll pick her up.”
“Education is not easy, yes, that’s for sureshe concedes. Yes, it is necessary to repeat, yes it is necessary to crack down, yes it is necessary to be there, it is necessary to be present otherwise one is not parents”. In principle, everyone agrees on this role, but sometimes it’s harder said than done. “It’s not easy, especially when the mother is all alone, observes Caroline who manages her two children, one in school, the other in college. However, it imposes its rules: “I have a teenager but I knock him out, she explains jokingly. That is to say, I give him instructions. Already, he does not go out in the evening. It’s 7 p.m., no further. It’s not simple but life is not easy. So you have to set limits.”
Going out in the evening and walking in groups “has become normal”
Sitting in the park where his two children play, Max also notes this difficulty of certain families. “With all this violence which has been increasing lately in the neighborhoods especially, I think that the parents are more and more overwhelmedhe delivers. The children play alone downstairs, they walk around in groups. It’s become normal and I think that’s also the problem.”
Parents pick up their children at the exit. The school party was canceled at the last moment like in many other cities. “I didn’t know. I just found out,” explains Caroline, who had brought drinks. Of course she says to herself “disappointed, especially for the little ones. But it’s better to be safe”, she agrees. In the streets here, we see traces of burned cars. The teachers still organized a small party on Friday afternoon during school time, suddenly without the parents.
Keeping children at home is “completely logical”, say parents interviewed on leaving school – Report by Noémie Bonnin.
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