A teacher and the principal of a college in which a student had been badly burned with ethanol in class were sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday December 16 by the Correctional Court of Coutances (Manche).
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On June 1, 2017, an eleven-year-old schoolboy was seriously burned during an experiment with ethanol in a college in Saint-Lô.
The student had to undergo skin grafts on his forehead, eyelid and arm.
The teacher and the college principal were both sentenced to six months in prison with a simple suspended sentence.
At the trial on December 2, the prosecution requested a fine of 2,000 euros, including 1,500 suspended sentences, against the 37-year-old teacher who was leading the experiment, and also against the principal of the college at the time of the facts, aged 66. .
The prosecution reproached this professor of physics and chemistry for having poured the product directly from the can onto a heated container and for not having read the product safety sheet.
The main proceedings, who did not appear at the hearing, were accused of the absence of protective equipment and the single risk prevention document as well as poor ventilation of the room.
In its decision, the court considered that the two defendants were guilty, even if the professor declared herself solely responsible at the trial: the principal should have finalized the single document of risk prevention and ensure the proper use of dangerous products. .
Before the accident, the teacher had requested training in chemical risks which had been refused to her, and her inspection reports were "
very laudatory
", underlined her lawyer Emilie Omont.
A provision of 29,500 euros was ordered by the court, with compensation payable by the state judicial agency and a request for an expertise of the child.
The case had been tried behind closed doors.
Civil parties, the parents of the young man have launched a petition to ask the Minister of Education to ban ethanol in schools.
The text showed nearly 28,000 signatures on Wednesday.
According to the parents, the accident suffered by their son was not isolated.
According to them, during similar experiences, a high school student suffered serious burns in 2013 in Crépy-en-Valois (Oise);
in 2017, a teacher "
caught fire
" in Limoges, and in 2018, a high school student was seriously injured in Chantonnay (Vendée).
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