In thick fog, a national police van pulls up.
Inside, three policemen, their eyes riveted on a… high school.
A few meters away, near the gray gate, another presence calls out.
That of Fabrice
(the first name has been changed)
pants and blue jacket signed "Ile-de-France" and his skinny colleague Ali, walkie-talkie in his pocket, who will be joined later by Teddy, with an imposing build, bundled up in a wide combination in the colors of the region.
Together, they form one of the four regional security brigades (BRS), normally composed of five officers each.
Created in April 2019, they are there “to respond to security problems (violence, intrusions)” in high schools.
For the first time, we are allowed to accompany one.
It is 8.15 a.m., the Pierre-Mendès-France vocational high school in Ris-Orangis (Essonne) is already under surveillance.
Two weeks ago, a fight against the backdrop of rivalries between neighborhoods
If this Tuesday calm reigns in this establishment of just over 500 students overlooking a national road, it was much less two weeks ago.
That Friday afternoon, a violent fight broke out.
Young people from Grigny, Evry and Ris exchange blows against a backdrop of neighborhood rivalry and end this altercation in the… high school.
A student is injured, he will be absent for several days.
Ris-Orangis (Essonne), Tuesday November 24, 2020. A brawl between students broke out at the Pierre-Mendès-France high school, two weeks ago, leaving one injured.
LP / PDP
But it's impossible to know what led to the last brawl.
"We talk about it with students
(Editor's note: including those involved)
but they do not know it themselves, these are enmities that date back to before their birth, notes Fabrice.
These brawls are a virus transmitted from generation to generation.
"
According to a police source, it would be "there because of a clip of a local rap group that houses the neighboring city and people who challenge each other on social networks".
“Frankly, we do not understand their confusion, annoys a high school student in management administration.
It makes no sense.
"
"When I come to class, it's not to end up in the hospital"
Moussa and Rachid
(the first names have been changed)
, in second, are "drunk by these stories".
"Personally, when I come to class, it's not to end up in the hospital", reacts Rachid.
Neighborhood rivalries are familiar to all.
“In the playground there are on one side the guys from Evry, those from Grigny and us,” says a student from Corbeil, in 1st.
At the moment, Corbeil is not too targeted by these stories.
But still, we protect each other.
"
Everywhere in Ile-de-France, not a week goes by without brawls being reported near schools, sometimes very violent.
This Monday, it was in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis), last week, in Paris, in the eleventh.
But also in the 19th century, where a high school student was seriously injured with a knife near the Bergson high school, now being watched by another BRS team.
Another is mobilized at Paul-Eluard in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) where a high school student injured another with a knife in September.
Weapons more and more often used
Brawls between high school students more and more violent.
In Essonne alone, in the first week of November alone, there were seven fights between rival gangs in seven high schools, including several with weapons (knife, hammer, small pistol).
“We have the impression that it has become a standard to use them,” notes Fabrice.
The phenomenon is "followed very closely by the academic teams", insists one at the academy of Versailles (Essonne, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, Hauts-de-Seine), without giving figures.
But, says the academy, “more than 240 school leaders” have been trained to manage this type of incident.
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“Since the start of the school year in September, 200 interventions to secure the BRS have taken place,” explains the region.
Unfortunately the violence is increasing both in number and in intensity and so are the demands of the principals.
Hence the creation of a fifth brigade in 2021. "
"We are here to mediate"
“We intervene at the request of the principal.
We are there to mediate, to ensure the safety of people and property.
We are neither a police officer nor of the school administration, it is easier to exchange with the students, that we want to keep a certain distance, ”notes Fabrice, 35, former police officer and coordinator, trained during his recruitment, as all his colleagues from the BRS, by the rectorate of Versailles to act in schools.
Ali and Teddy, too, have previously worked in security.
The regional security brigades are made up of five agents and sent to various lycées in Ile-de-France to ease tensions between students.LP / PDP
As soon as the BRS arrived, after the brawl, and after a meeting between the commissioner, the academic mobile security unit of the rectorate, and the school management, "we were then five agents."
"There was first an identification work to do, to know which student is part of which city, is in competition with whom ... to then discuss with them, during recess, in the canteen, in small groups to avoid the band effect because there it can be complicated.
The first days of intervention, it is necessary to show skill.
The goal is to avoid possible reprisals and any story that could aggravate an already tense situation.
"We are attentive to the slightest behavior"
“We must be on the alert all the time, reacts Fabrice.
All day long we are on the alert, abounds Teddy, without ever losing sight of everything around us.
We are attentive to the slightest behavior, to the slightest passerby.
Any minute, everything can change.
In the afternoon, suddenly, a group of students moves the barrier of the school to get out.
Fabrice, Teddy, 27, and Ali, 35, are on alert.
“Wait for someone to open the door for you,” Fabrice asks them.
He is heard.
When most of the students are inside the school, the BRS regularly walks around the school.
After a week and a half on site, the BRS seems “integrated” into high school life.
His presence makes it possible "to ease tensions", greets a teacher.
“Since they have been there, there have been no fights, Rachid smiles.
But hey, it might start again after ... "
An educator from the 19th arrondissement in Paris confronted with this problem regrets “that over the years, no solution has really been found to resolve this scourge of brawls between high school students.
The Academy of Versailles says it wants to develop "a detailed diagnosis" of eight territories affected by these fights.
The mayor of Ris-Orangis tomorrow a "real mixing" of students
For the mayor (PS) of Ris-Orangis, Stéphane Raffalli, it would be necessary to “rethink the school map.
It is not satisfactory to concentrate all the sensitive districts
(Editor's note: Evry, Grigny, Corbeil)
within the same establishment.
The children of these neighborhoods need to get away from it all, decompartmentalization is necessary, but there it is a source of tension.
It is necessary to set up a real mixing, not to regroup the children resulting from the policy of the city together.
"
Tomorrow, Fabrice does not yet know in which establishment he will be assigned.
Ali and Teddy remain in Ris “until the end of the week”.
“After, we'll see, we adapt to the emergency,” insists the trio.