Yvelines. Harassment, extortion, violence: the 14-year-old schoolboy traumatized 5 victims

The first complaints were filed in March and April 2023 by the parents of five victims attending school in Achères (Yvelines), at the Jean-Lurçat college, for facts which go far beyond a case of school harassment.

Aged 14, the attacker was found guilty repeated acts of extortion, violence, including sexual violence, and sexual exhibition. It was November 9, 2023 during a first hearing at the Versailles Children’s Court. On June 6, 2024, he was sentenced to 8 months suspended prison sentencetwo years of probation, obligation of continuity of care and three years of ban on carrying a weapon.

Excluded from the establishment in May 2023 by the disciplinary council (and since then educated in another establishment in Yvelines), placed under judicial supervision at the same period, the teenager, who lives in a neighborhood neighboring the college and whose lawyer remained unreachable, and was also prohibited from approaching his former comrades.

“They all had their heads down”

“I began to understand that there was a problem when I saw my son and his comrades parading, one behind the other, to greet another while doing a check, in the morning in front of the entrance to the college. They all had the head down passing him,” recalls the mother of one of the two victims we met. The five middle school students are defended by Maître Amélie Therond-Keraudren.

“With this affair, we are sinking […] in delinquency, with the daily repetition of acts which had to be denounced […] so that the victims can break the yoke of psychological enslavement and the physical domination under which their attacker had placed them. »

Maître Amélie Therond-Keraudren

When and how the situationright of way Did she settle in? “They owe their survival to a classmate,” reveals the lawyer. Before moving, she dared to talk to the director about it. » The facts then go back to the Rectorate, are reported to the local police station and to the public prosecutor.

Children break the silence

Questioned by their parents, the children break the silence, despite the fear of reprisals. Little by little, they recount the bullying, the insults, the perverse domination but also the threats, the racketeering, the violence, the exhibitions and the sexual assaults.

“My son saw things that a child his age should not have seen […] and we probably don’t know everything”, wrote a parent to the judge, in a letter he entrusted to us, where he describes “the changes observed” in the teenager: the fear of taking public transport, of taking the dog out, withdrawal, loss of sleep and anxiety. “Since then, he has told me that he had thought about ending his life,” adds the father. And confiding: “The hardest part is that we don’t have nothing seen coming. »

Fear, common denominator

“Fear is the common denominator among all victims,” notes Amélie Therond-Keraudren, who also denounces that of “certain teachers” who “preferred pretend to see nothing for months to preserve their safety, even if it means endangering the health and integrity of these child victims. »

At the rectorate of the Academy of Versailles, the press service explains that “the situation” is “known and carefully monitored by the establishment and the academic management of Yvelines”. Parents also salute the “courage” of the director of the adapted education sectiondedicated to children with academic difficulties, who reported the case in spring 2023, which resulted in the attacker being placed under judicial supervision and his exclusion.

Breakdown of communication after the hearing

“Relations with the college were no longer the same from the start of the school year in September 2023, and even more so after the hearing in November which recognized the facts of guilt”, explain the parents who describe a “break in communication » and relationships that have become aggressive » with the teaching and administrative teams.

Three calls to 30 18 in April 2024

Their lawyer specifies: “The recognition given by the courts was not found at the college. » She deplores “the post management » of the school because the daily life of the children continued to be “degraded by the presence of numerous disruptors to whom everything is excused. »

The rectorate recognizes that a “feeling of unease” was expressed by “several students” at the start of the September 2023 school year. “Faced with this situation, the head of the establishment called on academic authorities to support the teaching teams and students,” explains our contact at National Education. “Recently, a situation update took place in the presence of the management of the establishment, the establishment and school life technical advisor and the harassment representative. »

The academy hopes to “recreate a bond of trust”

“The opening of the trial of the harassing student in November (2023) impactedsome pupils. To support them, the teaching teams worked on group cohesion,” he continues. However, the families of three students ended up calling 3018, one of the short numbers to fight against the harassment of young people (along with 3020), in April 2024. They were received in Guyancourt (Yvelines), the headquarters of the rectorate, after the hearing on June 6, 2024.

“Families of three students […] have benefited from monitoring at departmental level since April. The objective is to work together to improve the school climate of the class, to achieve student success and to recreate a bond of trust between families and the establishment. »

The two families we met are no longer there. They hope that, via a movingor a exemptiontheir children change establishments quickly.

All the actors in this case still have an appointment at the Children’s Court, for a third hearing, in January 2025. The judge will rule on the amount of thedamages and interests. “My clients need psychological support,” says Amélie Therond-Keraudren. Not all of them have the financial means to advance the costs of one session per week with a psychotherapist. It is a free obligation for the aggressor and an onerous request for the victims. »

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