When she was tried before the Chartres court on January 6 (see our edition of January 7), the teacher defended herself vigorously. “I’m strict and square, but I’m fair!” “, she assured.
Aged 45, the teacher was accused by a dozen parents of students of harassment of their children, both at Saint-Ferdinand school, in Chartres, in 2020-2021, and at Notre-Dame private school. Dame, in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais, where she had served as director, in 2018-2019.
According to some children, the teacher would have decked them out with unflattering nicknames: “Three little pigs”, “melon head”. His colleagues, in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais, also testified. And their testimonies were overwhelming for the director at the time. “She’s tough on the parents and the kids,” said one. “When she has someone in her nose, she is limitless,” added another.
“A climate of terror”
A behavior which, according to the elements declined at the hearing, would have continued at the Saint-Ferdinand school, where other children would have been victims of what the prosecutor described as moral harassment.
“I try to bring humor and benevolence into my class”, defended the teacher, during her trial, in front of a packed courtroom, with on one side, its many supporters, and on the other, its just as many detractors. The parents of students who denounced his behavior had, for some, come accompanied by their child.
“What is the difference between humor and mockery? asked the public prosecutor. “If it feels like mockery, I’m sorry,” lamented the teacher.
Many parents considered that their children “felt a climate of terror”, assured Me Bertrand Lebailly, one of the lawyers for the civil parties. “An extremely clear system of harassment”, underlined Me Anne-Gaelle Le Roy.
“It is a passionate affair which has torn the educational community apart”
For the public prosecutor, the guilt of the teacher is beyond doubt. After having assured that “the facts of moral harassment were well constituted”, the magistrate claimed against the defendant ten months in prison, arranged in the form of house arrest under an electronic bracelet.
The defense lawyer, Me Vincent Rivierre, spoke out against the procedure, pinning the management of the two establishments concerned in passing: “All that because the school system did not know how to manage this affair internally! “My client is not an ogress. She doesn’t eat children. She just wanted to do her job well! “, he added.
A teacher from the Saint-Ferdinand private school in Chartres will be tried for acts of harassment
For the lawyer, his client has not committed any criminal offence: “It is a passionate affair which has torn the educational community and, perhaps, half of the city of Chartres. »
Precisely in the face of the passion aroused by this case, the court had taken the time to make its decision. The deliberation was delivered yesterday.
The judges sentenced the teacher to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a ban on exercising a profession in contact with minors. She is ineligible for a period of two years.
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