A student recently excluded from a high school in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) was arrested on Wednesday, the day after the firing of a fireworks mortar at the entrance to the establishment, where the majority of teachers then arrested work in protest.
“I confirm the arrest of (a) young person, minor of 17 years old, recently excluded from high school,” indicated the prosecution. The mayor of Mantes-la-Jolie, Raphaël Cognet, had previously revealed this information.
The principal assistant targeted
According to initial information, the shooting took place when students were returning to class on Tuesday. A young man aimed a fireworks mortar towards the entrance, where the deputy principal was. The latter was not hit, but the shot caused a crowd movement which slightly injured a student.
The heads of investigation retained are “violence with the use of a weapon against a person responsible for a public service mission, intrusion into a school establishment and endangering others”, specified the prosecution.
According to the same source, the minor arrested had never been convicted but was summoned to appear before the children’s judge for similar acts.
A return to school under pressure
A first “mortar” (fireworks) shot took place on September 19, and the alleged perpetrator, a student immediately excluded from high school, was summoned before the children’s judge on December 19.
Like the vast majority of high school teachers, Vincent Smith, English teacher at the Jean Rostand high school, exercised his right of withdrawal on Wednesday, and assures that “many adults and children are shaken”, “it’s still exceptional.”
“The academic authorities are mobilizing their services to resolve this situation,” said the rectorate, in order to “promote the peaceful resumption of teaching in the interest of the students”, without giving further details.
“We have always had problems in Rostand, but not to this extent”
“We need something tangible,” insists Vincent Smith, indicating that he and his colleagues will resume classes on Thursday, “with reinforcements at the entrance.”
“We have always had problems at Rostand, but not to this extent, with such intensity from the start of the school year,” underlines another professor who wished to remain anonymous. According to him, a student also threw a stone at a teacher at the beginning of the year, an event he links to the two fireworks mortar attacks.
Only a few teachers continued their classes on Wednesday, and the traces of the previous day’s episode have already been cleaned up. The few students present returned to class under the watchful eye of two men with impressive builds.
A security brigade and soon a turnstile?
They are part of a regional security brigade of five people “which had already been deployed at the end of September and is again until the holidays”, indicated Othman Nassrou, vice-president of the Ile-de-France region.
“We can put a turnstile at the entrance to secure it, the request has just been made to us by the management of the establishment, this can be done very quickly” he assured the press.
This is not the first time that fireworks have been fired at the Jean Rostand high school: in December 2021, two minors were arrested and then presented to a children’s judge after shots targeted the establishment.