Paul-Éluard Secondary School in Saint-Denis: three arrests during police operation
Three people were arrested on Thursday at Paul-Éluard secondary school during a BAC operation to apprehend a student. Staff have denounced the operation as "violent"; police say they acted with the agreement of the headmaster.
Police operation and tensions at Paul-Éluard secondary school
According to ici.fr, a plainclothes police operation took place on Thursday morning at Paul-Éluard secondary school in Saint-Denis, one of the main focal points of the ongoing student movement. Three people were arrested during this operation.
Staff members from the establishment have denounced how the operation unfolded. "Students were organising a new blockade in front of the building when police began to charge, to use tear gas, to insult and to hit the young people, but also adults trying to protect them," members of staff told the AFP. According to their account, the headmaster summoned a student to his office before letting police in to carry out the arrest. Staff members then intervened, which according to them provoked "violent reactions from police, including blows against colleagues".
The authorities' account
The Paris police prefecture presents a different version. The police entered the school "with the agreement of the head of establishment," it states to franceinfo. Anti-crime unit officers aimed to "arrest the perpetrator of an assault who had taken refuge within the school premises". Prevented by teachers, the officers decided to "withdraw in order to restore calm". The headmaster then closed and evacuated the establishment "without assistance from the public force".
However, CGT Educ'action 93 denounces what it describes as a "BAC incursion". The union states that staff members "intervened" in the face of an "extremely brutal" scene. It asserts that "a colleague was strangled and that several received blows".
Complaints and investigation
The Bobigny prosecutor's office has opened a flagrant-crime investigation for "violence against persons holding public authority". The police officers in turn denounce the commission of violence against them by the teachers present and have filed a complaint. They will "soon be examined by a doctor," states a communiqué from the prosecutor released Thursday evening.
Videos circulating on social media show several plainclothes police officers, one of whom is wearing a "police" armband. Staff can be heard shouting "Free our student". The police prefecture clarifies that around 300 students were gathered near the school at the time of the operation, "in connection with the student movement". According to the same source, "several offences were committed against the police officers".
Testimony of the targeted student
Bilel, the student whom the BAC was to arrest, told France Inter he was "in shock". According to him, the headmaster "is supposed to protect his students, not report them". The teenager recounts that the police officers "held him from behind, at the level of the neck" and "pushed him down the stairs while holding him, pressing him hard against the teachers". He asserts that he "at no moment tried to flee". Thanks to the mobilisation of the teachers, Bilel was ultimately not arrested and went home.
Regulatory context and closure
The Créteil rectorat states that police "asked the headmaster to allow them in", a request which the latter "cannot refuse". It was initially planned to "isolate the student", suspected of "assault on an officer". The rectorat acknowledges that the situation subsequently "escalated" and that "staff members intervened". The establishment was closed from Thursday afternoon onwards and remained closed on Friday, with lessons taking place remotely.
The police prefecture recalls that law enforcement can intervene within an establishment when requested by the head of establishment or access it after having obtained his agreement. The operation falls within the remit of "flagrant offences" according to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Context of the student movement
This incident is part of a broader context of student mobilisations in Île-de-France over the past week. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated on Monday that demonstrations and blockades at school entrances "amount to urban violence". The government has announced 164 arrests linked to these movements. School blockades continued on Tuesday across France, punctuated by incidents: the Interior Ministry counted 440 arrests, mainly of minors.
On Wednesday afternoon, several hundred protesters gathered in the Châtelet-Les Halles district in Paris, where a fire broke out and damaged the façade of a building. Two hundred and eighty arrests took place in Paris during this event.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)