The director general of the national gendarmerie, Hubert Bonneau, estimated, on BFM-TVThursday, January 30, that the arrest of a student in his college in Moselle by the gendarmes was “A collective error”. General Bonneau was questioned about the intervention of two gendarmes from the Ennery Brigade at the Paul-Verlaine college in Maizières-lès-Metz, on January 22, in order to arrest a student.
“With the agreement of its legal representatives, they came to seek a student in a respected regulatory framework. Also, no disorder was reported within the establishment at the time of this intervention ”had then assured the rectorate. According to the prefecture of Bas-Rhin, the family of this teenager was to return that day to Belgium, where her asylum request must be examined. According to the SNES-FSU union, the family had fled Burkina Faso.
The teaching community immediately mobilized to defend the “Sanctuary” From school space, faced with a situation that also recalls that of Leonarda, 15, expelled to Kosovo on October 9, 2013 after being arrested during a school outing. This strong media impact case had pushed the Minister of the Interior of the time, Manuel Valls, to produce an investigation to the prefects, adding that “The execution of removal measures of foreigners in an irregular situation should in no case give rise to interventions within or near schools and schools”.
According to the boss of the gendarmerie, after calling the colleague's principal, who gave the agreement so that they could return to the establishment, the two gendarmes “Went to the school living space. They did not enter the classroom ”. However, he recognized that the 2013 circular prohibiting this type of intervention “Should have been respected”. According to him, the gendarmes who intervened did not know this circular, as was the director of the school and the prefecture. “It's a collective error and we take note of it”concluded Mr. Bonneau.
After the incident, the Minister of National Education, Elisabeth Borne, wrote to rectors on Wednesday to remind that the interventions of the forces of the “Linked to distance procedures are strictly prohibited in the school framework”.
Source: Lemonde