AFP Videos – France
Tourcoing: a student in police custody, suspected of having slapped a teacher
A student was still in police custody on Tuesday suspected of having slapped a teacher at her high school in Tourcoing (North) on Monday who allegedly asked her to remove the veil she had just put on when leaving the establishment, an act which “challenges the secular school”, for the Minister of Education Anne Genetet. This teacher of sciences and medico-social techniques from the Sévigné high school allegedly asked the student to remove her veil in the courtyard of the establishment, indicated a police source, but the high school student, who was preparing to leave, would have refused. According to the first investigations, the teacher asked the student “to remove her religious veil, before receiving insulting remarks”, indicated the Lille public prosecutor’s office to AFP. The teacher then “opposed his leaving the establishment in order to obtain his identity” and the student then “slapped the teacher, who gave it back”. “Several blows, threats and shoving followed,” adds prosecutor Carole Étienne. The student, aged 18 and unknown to the police, then fled, before being arrested at her home and placed in custody. custody, said the police source. An investigation was opened and the custody extended on Tuesday, indicated the prosecution. According to Jean-François Carémel, academic secretary of SNES-FSU Lille, the teacher filed a complaint. The union said it was “in solidarity with all the staff at the Sévigné high school faced with difficult working conditions”. Classes were suspended by the establishment and “a support system” put in place by the rectorate to the educational community. Jean Lili, parent of a student and member of FCPE Nord, told AFP that the parents’ federation provided its “support to the school establishment”. But in front of the high school, opinions differed between the students.Leïla, a final year student who did not witness the events, said she was “really shocked”. “Why such violence over a simple veil? The teacher could very well have asked the young girl very calmly to remove her veil,” said the student, who removes hers at high school. For another student, in first grade, who does not wish to give her name, the student arrested “should have just taken off her veil and put it on when leaving school, like all girls do”. “The teacher just wanted to defend herself, to impose the rules”, according to the young girl. – Disciplinary council – The teacher “was attacked verbally then physically, without possible dispute since the high school video” allowed the police “to take not only the complaint but to qualify the facts”, affirmed the deputy Gérald Darmanin, elected from Tourcoing, during questions to the government in the National Assembly. The former Minister of the Interior had given his support on announced that a “precautionary measure” had been taken against the student “to prohibit him from accessing the establishment until his disciplinary council meets”. Pointing out an act which defies the “secular school” and “the Republic”, she indicated that she had requested “very firm disciplinary sanctions”. “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”. The National Rally of Hauts-de-France called for “exemplary sanctions” in a press release.mca-zl-asm-slb/cnp/bj/abl
