In the documents consulted by the media, the institution had in fact been alerted by a mother whose son had allegedly been slapped by the same teacher. Two months later, the Paris academy responded that an investigation had been launched, but that the child had indicated that no one had hit him.
Intimidation
At that time, the teacher’s lawyer reportedly wrote to the mother to ask her “to change her behavior” so as not to be targeted for “slanderous denunciation.” For Vanessa Edberg, the lawyer for the two families accusing the teacher, it is because of this letter that the complaint was not filed until twelve years later.
“The lawyer for this mistress indicated on the sets that she had never had any prior record, even though she had threatened my client, since she is also my client now, to file a complaint for malicious denunciation and defamation, obviously trying to intimidate her and to keep her quiet,” she explained.
The teacher testifies
Interviewed by France 2, the teacher regretted Tuesday “an unfortunate and wrongful gesture” regarding the video, while pointing out the “false information” circulating about her in the media. In detail, the woman admitted the facts for the blow to the three-year-old girl, following the broadcast of the video, but not the slap which would therefore have occurred twelve years ago.
The teacher, temporarily suspended from her school, also said she was “relieved to have been able to deliver [sa] version of events to investigators” during her police custody on Monday, September 16, before being released. “Concerning the accusations of repeat offenses, we are bringing up a case from 2012 that did not give rise to a complaint, but to a report. We forget to say that there was an internal investigation during which the student admitted to lying. It is false in my opinion to say that the principal covered up the affair,” she explained. According to her lawyer, the woman had never hit a student before September 3.
