A company of CRS will be deployed near two schools in Valence, closed after "threatening behavior of groups of individuals," announced Wednesday a statement from the prefecture of Drôme.
It all began Monday, according to the daily Le Dauphiné Libéré, when a fight broke out in front of a gate of the Pierre Brossolette primary school, in the popular district of Plan, followed by "death threats on mothers and their children". According to the rectorate, parents of students were violently "attacked" by individuals in front of the school gate.
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A parent said on BFMTV that the children attending this school, which seems to be in the heart of a neighborhood plagued by drug trafficking, had witnessed several times in the past clashes between traffickers.
This establishment and the Jules Vallès elementary school were closed on Tuesday following the right of withdrawal exercised by their staff. Schools will reopen on Thursday, said the Grenoble academy on which depends Valence, a city of 65,000 inhabitants marked by high unemployment and poverty rates (more than 17.1% and 21%, according to INSEE statistics).
"The school of the Republic will remain a sanctuary"
"In a particularly sensitive context, the threats made have also aroused many comments, rumors and reactions," while an investigation is underway, said the prefecture. Arrests and searches are "underway" and "the CRS will have the particular mission to ensure a reassuring presence around schools," she added. "The school of the Republic is and will remain a sanctuary. The fight against any threat to this symbol that binds us all, will mobilize all the means of the State, "concludes the prefecture.
The incidents around schools add to the climate of violence that has worsened in recent weeks in Valencia and its outskirts: between 9 and 24 May, four men were shot dead against a background of settling scores. The last occurred on the night of May 23 to 24 in the parking lot of a supermarket on the outskirts of Valencia directed investigators "to organized drug trafficking, and other homicide cases already under investigation," according to the Valencia prosecutor's office. The police force had been increased after those incidents.
