The former head of the boarding school at the Parisian establishment Stanislas appeared before the Valenciennes criminal court on Monday, September 9. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended, for acts of violence. A case that received media coverage after the chaotic beginnings of Amélie Ouadéa-Castéra at the Ministry of National Education.
It was a short sentence from the former Minister of National Education that brought the matter into the spotlight. January 2024, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was newly appointed to her position. To justify having educated her three sons in the private Stanislas school in Paris, she mentioned the “hours not seriously replaced” from public school.
The controversy is growing. Beyond the minister, it is the Catholic institution itself that is at the heart of the tumult. More specifically, its former boarding school director.
Olivier P. is 61 years old. He lives in Trith-Saint-Léger in the North. Six students from the Parisian establishment accuse him of “violence“.
In February 2024, the Valenciennes public prosecutor’s office looked into the case. It listed the facts alleged: “whip blows, kicks, slaps on the back of the head, tackles to the ground, insults, as well as a psychological hold“. The violence allegedly took place between September 1, 2013 and July 30, 2018. 2018 was the year the man was suspended and then fired from Stanislas for serious misconduct.
The man was tried this Monday, September 9, 2024 in front of the Valenciennes judicial court in the North. Olivier P. is sitting alone in the front row, gray hair, balding, beige suit.Six students, six times the same speech almost word for word… Are you disputing the facts? asks the president of the hearing.Yes, absolutely.“, replies the defendant. His line of defense since the beginning of the case.
Four of the six young people are in the courtroom. Men now 25 years old. As soon as their testimonies are read, the tone is set: “I was always wary of him, telling myself: never alone in his office.“. The young men describe a “predatory attitude“, a man”deeply unhealthy“They also denounce homophobic insults like “queer“.
If he denies the violencethe Northerner recognizes a “authoritarian attitude” : “It could have happened that there was a little tap dance” he admitted to the audience.
At midday on Monday, September 9, 2024, the Valenciennes Criminal Court sentenced Olivier P. to 12 months suspended prison sentence. He also has ban on working with minors for 5 years.
But the case does not stop at the “Stanislas section”. The former boarding school master worked in several Catholic establishments in the Ile-de-France region. Another student accuses him of even more serious acts. The former manager is also indicted for “rape and sexual assault by a person abusing their position“.
These latest acts were allegedly committed between June 30 and July 1, 2001 in Pontoise in Val-d’Oise.within the Saint-Martin-de-France boarding school“. The student was 17 years old at the time. Here again, the Valenciennes native denies the facts. In this case, the suspect was placed “under judicial supervision“, with “prohibition on contacting the victim“, according to the prosecution.
This case will be judged at a later date.