At the Evariste-Galois college in Nanterre, the rapprochement between young people and the police undermined by the riots

2023-07-10 05:30:02
Mural made by students from the Evariste-Galois college in Nanterre during the 2022-2023 school year. ROBIN RICHARDOT / THE WORLD

It was two weeks ago and yet it seems like an eternity. The scene took place at the Evariste-Galois college, an establishment in a reinforced priority education network (REP +), in the heart of the Pablo-Picasso city of Nanterre. There was a buffet, young people, parents, the mayor of the city, Patrick Jarry (various left), and police officers. All these beautiful people were gathered for the inauguration of frescoes in the college, with the association Graines de France, which works on the rapprochement between the population and the police.

Read also: Article reserved for our Nanterre subscribers, from the slums of the 1950s to utopia, then to the riots

On one of them, the students had written words to define police missions: ” Availablity “, « Dialogue », ” The respect of the rules “. The college students had also posted memos on a wall intended to “My message for the future for our police”. Since then, 17-year-old Nahel M. was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on June 27, a revolt has broken out in the neighborhood and the sticky notes have been removed.

Everyone is all the more bitter because the twenty 4th graders who worked on these frescoes also prepared the Clemenceau competition throughout the year, rewarding the best national initiatives for bringing together young people and forces of the order. On June 2, the Nanterriens left with the first prize. “Everything we did this year was for nothing. It’s an acknowledgment of failure.”cowardly, annoyed, the history and geography teacher who participated in the project.

Same disappointment with his English colleague, the main teacher of the class (they both requested anonymity): “We tell them all year round that the police are protecting them. What do you expect us to say to them when they ask us why they killed a 17-year-old, then? » The question is all the more difficult since the majority of college students knew Nahel M., at least by name.

“We had a bad image of the police before”

This first experience, launched in September 2022, seemed promising so far. To get closer to the institutions, the students of this “defense class”, also called “citizenship class”, had been able to meet firefighters, soldiers and, above all, visit the Nanterre police station. “They were able to ask all their questions, there were no taboos. And young people did not hesitate to say what they thought “says Belkacem Ouchen, principal of the college.

“The question of police blunders came up often, like that of racism. At the end of the year, the students changed their view of the police, whom they also saw as individuals”, says the English teacher, who had prepared lessons on the police and theatrical productions to immerse the students in the life of a police station. The two adults are especially pleased with the support of the parents for the project. They too were able to discuss with police officers from the Nanterre police station. Contacted for this article, the police headquarters was unable, within a short time, to allow our meeting with the police officers who participated in the experiment.

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