Images of a kindergarten teacher assaulting one of her three-year-old students in class in Paris sparked a wave of indignation on Tuesday and the teacher’s suspension, in a case described as “a disgrace for our school” by the Minister of National Education.
On Monday, a video recorded by a parent present in the classroom and 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.
The facts date back to September 3, the day after the start of the school year.
Saying to journalists that she was “extremely shocked” by these images, the resigning Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, announced on X on Monday evening that she had requested “the immediate launch of disciplinary proceedings, with the immediate suspension of the teacher”.
Vanessa Edberg, lawyer for the child’s family, confirmed to AFP that she had filed a complaint on September 5 to denounce violence aggravated by three circumstances: against a vulnerable person, in a school establishment and perpetrated by a person carrying out a public service mission.
According to her, the three-year-old girl was starting her first year of nursery school and “had already been beaten the day before, which she had told her mother”.
“The video was filmed while there was another mother present, we can see that the teacher is holding back,” the lawyer said.
“The little girl has already seen a doctor, and will see another one to assess her temporary disability. The first doctor assessed her psychological damage as ‘severe’, because the little girl does not look others in the eye or face to face and refuses to talk about the teacher,” according to Mr Edberg.
When contacted, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicated that it had not yet received the complaint.
– “Not a professional gesture” –
The rector of the Paris academy, Bernard Beignier, spent part of the morning on Tuesday at the Frères-Voisin school located in the southwest of Paris, in order to talk with the teachers.
He assured during a press briefing that he was taking “things very seriously” in this affair which he considers “unacceptable”.
“I signed this (Tuesday) morning the suspension order for this teacher, which is not a sanction but a protective measure and then there will be both a criminal investigation since a complaint has been filed and an administrative investigation which could very certainly lead to a disciplinary council, or even sanctions ranging from reprimand to dismissal,” the rector specified.
Questioned by AFP, Bernard Beignier indicated that since the events, this teacher “has been on sick leave and has been replaced in her class. She will be “summoned in the coming days to be heard”.
The teacher “admitted the facts and apologized to the girl’s family,” according to the rector.
For Guislaine David, general secretary of FSU-Snuipp, the main union for primary education (nursery and elementary schools), “the images show a shocking situation, it is not a professional gesture”. “As teachers, we must ensure the physical and emotional safety of students”, she insisted to AFP.
“This is completely unsustainable, this behaviour is unspeakable, coming from a senior teacher, who had already been in this school for around ten years,” said Philippe Goujon, LR mayor of the 15th arrondissement of Paris, interviewed on BFMTV.
This teacher “knows the school, the parents, the students well, and she is a teacher who is around fifty years old”, “who does not normally let herself be carried away by her emotions”, he continued.
On July 4, a middle school teacher from Moselle was sentenced to three months’ suspended sentence for violence against a student, a sentence accompanied by a ban on engaging in any activity involving contact with minors for two years.
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