CentraleSupélec, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Polytechnique and the Institute of Optics are targeted by these investigations. Accusations of violence had been revealed by the distribution of internal questionnaires.
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Investigations for rape have recently been opened against several large schools, the Evry prosecution announced to AFP on Friday June 24. The establishments concerned are CentraleSupélec, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Polytechnique and the Institute of Optics.
The prosecutor opened these investigations after receiving “several complaints” against these large schools located on the plateau of Saclay, in Essonne. Three investigations have been entrusted to investigating judges: two at the ENS and one at CentraleSupélec, which is also the subject of an investigation by the prosecution. Added to this are three preliminary investigations: two at Polytechnique for rape and one at the Institut d’Optique for rape and sexual assault.
The prosecutor of Evry explains that “the word is freed” after the distribution of an internal questionnaire from the CentraleSupélec engineering school. This had revealed a hundred facts of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape over the academic year. These results had been reported by the school management to the prosecutor of Evry, who had opened a preliminary investigation in October 2021. In the process, other schools, such as Polytechnique, had also reported to justice the results of their own questionnaire on sexual violence.
The prosecutor pointed out “a dynamic” freedom of speech in “closed places where it was difficult to speak and be heard because it was necessary to preserve the reputation of the establishments”. At the moment, the suspicions only relate to students, and there is no, “at this hour, authority report” between the complainants and the suspects, specifies the prosecutor.