FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS – At four in the afternoon on Monday, three police officers entered the Alfortville middle school outside Paris during class. The principal walked her to the classroom and asked her to wait outside the door. The principal came in, stopped class and asked a 14-year-old boy to leave. The student was confronted in the hallway by police, who arrested him for bullying and threats. The 14-year-old reacted, they handcuffed him under the astonished eyes of his classmates and took him to the police station.
It is a story that is causing a lot of debate in France since it comes just days after the suicide of 15-year-old Nicolas, a victim of bullying, after the Minister of Education urged the educational world to an “electric shock” against persecution at school had been requesting for over a year.
The fact that the authorities reacted so forcefully to Alfortville was also because the Nicolas precedent revealed the scandalous behavior of the headmasters and especially the board of Versailles: after months of fruitless complaints from the parents, on May 4th the headmaster had sent them a very harsh letter , in which they are accused of having an “uncooperative” attitude, not to mention being a nuisance, and in which they are threatened with criminal consequences. On the evening of September 5th, Nicolas hanged himself in his room. And the revelation of the letter a few days later sparked general outrage, which was also shared by Minister Gabriel Attal, who spoke of “shame” and called on everyone to be extremely attentive and tough against bullying.
The arrest of the handcuffed boy in the school hallway a few days later is also related to this. And the wave of emotion in his defense weakened sharply as the details of what happened became known.
Over the weekend, the 14-year-old targeted a 15-year-old teenager on Instagram who was in the process of transitioning to female gender and attending a school near Alfortville. These are the messages: “We are going to fuck you all, you motherfuckers. You trans bitch, we’ll cut your throat. Shut up and commit suicide, you dirty idiot. Wallah (Interkalar, widely used in the suburbs, ed.) You deserve to die. They deserve us to emulate Hitler. Disappear, die. I hate guys like you. We will use your head to make propaganda.”
On Monday morning, the girl’s parents first went to the principal and then to the police to file a complaint. The arrest took place in the afternoon. The 14-year-old was interviewed in custody and said he was remorseful. After 48 hours, the judge released him, but forced him to do “socially useful work,” which will be defined in the coming weeks.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran defends the reaction of the school and the authorities: “How many times in the last few months have we had to mourn the death of a boy who took his own life because he was the victim of bullying?” Education Minister Gabriel Attal was right when he said Electric shocks against bullying demanded that we must fight against it with the greatest possible strength.”