The events took place on Monday at the Sévigné high school. After her custody, the teenager, unknown to the police and the courts, must be tried in immediate appearance on Wednesday afternoon.
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She must be judged on Wednesday afternoon. Suspected of having slapped a teacher who asked her to remove her veil on Monday, an 18-year-old student from the Sévigné high school in Tourcoing (North) must face justice, franceinfo learned, Wednesday October 9, from the public prosecutor’s office in Lille. Here is what we know, at this stage, about this affair.
An altercation within the premises of the establishment
The events took place on Monday around 4:30 p.m. at the Sévigné high school, when the student had just put on her veil when leaving the establishment. According to the first investigations, the teacher in technical medico-social sciences asked the young girl “to remove one’s religious veil, before being subjected to insulting remarks”declared the Lille prosecutor’s office to AFP. “The student insulted the teacher while continuing on his way to the exit”for its part specified the rectorate, as reported by France 3 Hauts-de-France.
The teacher then “opposed to his leaving the establishment in order to obtain his identity” and the student then carried “a slap to the teacher, who returned it”. “Several blows, threats and shoving followed”added prosecutor Carole Etienne. The student then fled, before being arrested at her home at the end of the day and placed in police custody. According to Jean-François Carémel, academic secretary of the Snes-FSU Lille union, the teacher then filed a complaint.
The student tried in immediate appearance on Wednesday
An investigation was opened and the custody of the student, unknown to the police and the justice system, was extended until Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office said. She was referred and must be tried immediately in the afternoon at the Lille judicial court. She may, however, request time to prepare her defense.
Academically, “a precautionary measure has already been taken against the student to prohibit him from accessing the establishment until his disciplinary council meets”, assured from the National Assembly the Minister of Education, Anne Genetet, specifying that she had spoken with the teacher and the principal. “I asked that very firm disciplinary sanctions be imposed given the seriousness of the facts”she added, specifying that a “mobile security team” had been deployed on site Tuesday morning by the rectorate.
Classes suspended until Thursday and a crisis unit open
Tuesday morning, the high school teachers met following this event, France Bleu Nord learned from the educational team. The attacked teacher was not present. The principal of the establishment decided to cancel classes and a crisis unit was opened with the teaching team and the rectorate.
Classes are not offered on Wednesday and will only resume on Thursday. The rectorate specifies that a “time for discussion and work is carried out by the teams” of the establishment. Students who arrive at the high school during the day will still be welcomed. Some were shocked, as they explained to France Télévisions, describing a teacher “super nice, attentive. We’ve never had a problem with her, she’s always there to help us”.
Assault on a teacher in Tourcoing: the student targeted by a complaint
The teacher allegedly asked the student to remove her veil before receiving several blows. The 18-year-old student was taken into police custody.
(franceinfo)
Others wonder, like Leïla, a final year student who did not witness the facts: “Why such violence for a simple veil? The teacher could very well have asked the young girl very calmly to remove her veil”told AFP the student, who withdraws his from high school.
Snes-FSU Lille said “in solidarity with all the staff at the Sévigné high school faced with difficult working conditions”. But as Jean-François Carémel declared to France Bleu Nord, there is no particular tension around questions of secularism in this educational establishment.
The political class immediately took up the matter
The attack was invited to the National Assembly on Tuesday, through the voice of the deputy for Tourcoing and former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The teacher “was verbally and then physically attacked, without possible dispute since the high school video” allowed the police “to not only take the complaint, but to qualify the facts”he said during questions to the government. When questioned, the Minister of National Education replied that it was “of an act which defies our secular school, of an act which defies the Republic”.
“To threaten a professor is to threaten the Republic. To strike a professor is to strike the Republic.”
Anne Genetet, Minister of National Educationin the National Assembly
“In all our establishments, the 2004 law must apply, the entire 2004 law” prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols at school, reacted the Minister Delegate in charge of Academic Success, Alexandre Portier. “The time is no longer for errors, for hesitations, but for a clear, firm and assumed line”he added. For the president of the Hauts-de-France Region, Xavier Bertrand, “secularism is one of the pillars of the school of the Republic, it cannot be negotiated”.