Six questions that arise after the opening of a preliminary investigation

On Monday, a video showing a teacher violently hitting a crying little girl in the back at a nursery school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris circulated on social media and provoked numerous reactions. The teacher has since been suspended.

The images sparked a wave of indignation. A preliminary investigation was opened on Tuesday, September 10, following a complaint filed by the parents of a 3-year-old girl. In a video posted on social media on Monday, the crying child can be seen being hit and doused with a liquid by her teacher in a nursery school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The case has been brought to the forefront since the resigning Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, spoke of “Shame on our school”The teacher was suspended. as a preventive measure.

Who filmed and released this video?

This video was posted on the social network X early Monday afternoon by Vanessa Edberg, lawyer at the Paris bar, who presents herself as “specializing in human and foreign rights” and deputy mayor of the 16th arrondissement for roads, transport and road safety. She then announced that a complaint had been filed and that she represented the family of the girl who had been hit. The images, which had been viewed 1.7 million times by Wednesday morning, show the teacher hitting the student on the back as she was having a crying fit. She fell to the ground and then ran to take refuge near the door. The teacher then grabbed a glass, probably filled with water, and threw the contents on the child, shouting: “There! Does that feel good?” She adds, pointing at her: “You’ll see when Dad comes back what I’m going to tell him.”

A teacher assaults a little girl in the first year of primary school and sprays a liquid on her head in a school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. A complaint has been filed. As a lawyer, I will fight this battle hand in hand with the family, as a mother, my heart… pic.twitter.com/5LQ6O6XP5f

— Vanessa EDBERG (@EdbergVanessa) September 9, 2024

As Vanessa Edberg told AFP, the scene filmed dates back to September 5, three days after the start of the school year, and takes place in a nursery class at the school. of the Voisin Brothers, in the 15th arrondissement of the capital. “The video was filmed while there was another mother present, we can see that the teacher is holding back”the lawyer said.

What facts are covered by the complaint filed that same evening?

Asked by France Bleu Paris, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office confirmed “the existence of a complaint filed in Issy-les-Moulineaux on September 5 in the early evening by the mother of a 3-year-old child living in Paris”. And this for “facts qualified at this stage as violence against a minor under 15 without incapacity”. A preliminary investigation has been opened, entrusted to the Issy-les-Moulineaux police station (Hauts-de-Seine). The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office specifies that it “should relinquish jurisdiction once the protective measures have been carried out concerning the victim with a view to determining any possible incapacity, in favor of the public prosecutor’s office at the place of the facts (Paris 15th)”.

According to Vanessa Edberg, quoted by AFP, other facts, dating from September 3 are also denounced in this complaint. The 3-year-old girl, who was starting school for the first time, had previously told her mother “blows” from the teacher.

What do we know about this teacher?

According to information from franceinfo, this is a experienced teachera tenured professor for twenty years, half of which were spent at this school. As Philippe Goujon, Les Républicains mayor of the 15th arrondissement, explained on BFMTV, She “knows the school, the parents, the students well, and she is a teacher in her fifties”, “Who [ne] does not normally get carried away by his emotions”.

The rectorate confirms for its part that this professor’s file is empty. However, lawyer Vanessa Edberg told franceinfo that “Other mothers have approached me to tell me that thanks to this story, tongues have been loosened and that other similar facts have been reported”According to her, several parents at the school are considering filing a complaint in turn.

“We are trying to bring out an old case” dating from 2012, denounces on his side to franceinfo the teacher’s lawyer, Laurent Hazan. According to the latter, his client had been the subject of a report in 2012 for similar acts in the same school. “I would like to point out that there has never been any investigation into these facts. Simply a letter of denunciation to the rectorate to which a response was received. Period,” he adds.

Regarding the events of September 5, the teacher is “in shock” and “deeply regrets his gesture and has an emotional thought for the young student”, says her lawyer. According to the rectorate, she immediately acknowledged the facts, apologized, and mentioned an overcrowded class – 26 students that morning – in a hectic atmosphere.

What are the professional and legal risks she faces?

The resigning Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet, announced on Monday evening on X that she had requested “the immediate initiation of disciplinary proceedings, with the immediate suspension of the professor”The teacher is due to meet with the rectorate in the coming days. “I signed this [mardi] morning the suspension order of this teacher, which is not a sanction but a protective measure”said during a press briefingThe rector of the Paris academy, Bernard Beignier. Theadministrative investigation opened “could very certainly lead to a disciplinary board, or even sanctions ranging from reprimand to dismissal”the rector said.

On the judicial level, violence “not resulting in any incapacity for work” are punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros when committed against a minor or a vulnerable person by a person charged with a public service mission, specifies the Penal Code.

How is the little girl doing since then?

According to her mother, who spoke to France Télévisions, the little girl has been prostrate at home for four days, terrified when anyone talks to her about school. “She said to me: ‘No, I’m not going back to that school, the teacher is still there'”she reports, assuring that she is not taking the step of speaking publicly simply for her daughter. “I speak for the other students in the school.”