A 10-year-old child living in the Pyrénées-Orientales was questioned by the gendarmes for having disrupted on October 16 the time of tribute to professors Dominique Bernard, killed in Arras, and Samuel Paty, we learned on Friday October 27 from the prosecutor's office of Perpignan.
This child is the youngest of the minors, aged between 10 and 16, who were heard in this department for similar reasons "in the week following the minute of silence" observed in middle and high schools on October 16, Jean-David Cavaillé, public prosecutor, told AFP.
At least a dozen minors have been questioned in the Pyrénées-Orientales. They had been reported by the Ministry of Education, he said. "As soon as we have a report made by the Ministry of Education, we are obliged to check the conditions in which the child was raised," according to the prosecutor.
"He's ten years old, you can't do a penalty"
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When a student was able to express words or postures of protest" during these times of tribute, "the facts were transmitted through hierarchical channels to the competent authorities," noted the rectorate of the Montpellier academy, on which the Pyrénées-Orientales depends, without specifying how many students were concerned.
The "responses were different, depending on the age of the young people, the nature of the remarks and then their background (...) Sometimes there are educational measures, sometimes there are citizenship courses for older children. None of them went to court," Cavaillé said.
In the case of the 10-year-old child, "we have put in place an educational measure," said Jean-David Cavaillé, confirming information from the Blast website which had revealed that this boy, living in Canet-en-Roussillon, had been questioned by the gendarmes. "An educator is going to work with him. We're not in a criminal case, he's ten years old, we can't do a criminal case. It's just an educational measure," he said.
Contacted by AFP, the Justice Ministry did not say on Friday evening whether other minors had been heard for similar reasons in other departments.
On 19 October, the Ministry of Education recorded more than 500 incidents during the minute's silence. "Systematically, we refer the matter to the public prosecutor" and "we initiate disciplinary proceedings," said Minister Gabriel Attal.