• Three college students and a French teacher are indicted in the investigation into the suicide of Evaëlle, 11, for acts of harassment.

  • The teacher is also being prosecuted for acts of harassment on three other schoolchildren, including Jonathan, who was then in 6th grade.

  • To the examining magistrate, he recounts daily humiliations and insults.

Jonathan * did not change his behavior overnight. "It gradually rose," recalls the mother of the 14-year-old. This Thursday in April, both are in the office of the investigating judge in charge of investigating the reasons that pushed Evaëlle, 11, to end her life. It was almost two years ago, in the family home of Herblay, in the Val d'Oise. Three college students were indicted for harassment, just like - and this is unprecedented in this type of case - their French teacher, suspected of having maintained a deleterious climate. The latter is also being prosecuted for acts of harassment on three other students between 2016 and 2019.

Jonathan is the first of them to have been heard by the magistrate.

If he was not educated in the same 6th grade as Evaëlle and both knew each other little, his hearing, to which

20 Minutes

had access, sheds light on his young friend's descent into hell.

According to his story, he was caught in the flu shortly after entering college by this professor, now suspended from National Education.

“At the beginning of each year, she chooses her favorites and her targets and she has fun with them,” he explains.

Why is it part of the second category?

In her eyes, it was her shy and reserved character that displeased the teacher.

"He cried out that he was stupid"

He claims to have suffered from his mockery and insults for a year. “You have to go back to first grade”, “you're stupid, you suck”, “you are useless” she exclaims in front of the whole class… “It was a loop, every day”, insists- he does. Jonathan no longer dares to raise his hand, even when he does not understand an exercise, crosses his fingers so as not to be questioned for fear of being "yelled at". At home, his mother sees him lose his footing. "He shouted that he was stupid, that he was bad, that he was going to end up homeless," she told the examining magistrate. “What is striking is the system put in place by this teacher with a few scapegoats in each class, each year. She gives them the same demeaning, stigmatizing speech, ”protested Me Delphine Meillet, the lawyer for Evaëlle and Jonathan's parents.

During the investigations, several students confirmed to the investigators the ill-treatment suffered by the schoolboy.

"He had problems in French, she would put it in front of everyone and tell him 'you're stupid'," remembers Arnaud *, 13, one of the three college students indicted in this case, suspected of having harassed Evaëlle.

He, on the contrary, tells him to have been the "darling" of this teacher who "scolded him with a smile", passed him his behavioral deviations.

"I chatted a lot and yet she put less crosses on me whereas Jonathan chatted once and she put many crosses on him," he recalls.

The professor denies the facts

The teacher, who describes herself as "severe but fair", "very attentive to the students", denies having had, towards Evaëlle or any other schoolboy, a behavior that could amount to harassment. Heard in September 2020 by the examining magistrate, in particular on the case of Jonathan, she claims, on the contrary, to have tried to help this college student whom she describes as addicted to video games by setting up a "protocol". Her mother confirms to have solicited the teacher but assures that the words, reassuring, of the teacher were not followed by actions. A situation, she confided to the examining magistrate, which plunged her into deep disarray. “Evaëlle's parents tried to alert but it had repercussions on Evaëlle, I didn't want it to affect Jonathan, who for me is more fragile. »Asked,the teacher's lawyer did not respond.

If this year was significant for the teenager, psychological expertise does not highlight post-traumatic stress.

Today, Jonathan, a 4th year student, says he feels good at his school.

“Everyone is cool and nice,” he insists, believing that the new management of the establishment, firmer, but also fairer, has a lot to do with it.

* The names of minors have been changed except that of Evaëlle

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  • School harassment

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