lifting “the omerta that reigned on campus” de Saclay: several investigations have recently been opened for rape in prestigious establishments such as the École Normale Supérieure, Polytechnique and CentraleSupélec, south of Paris. The prosecution of Évry (Essonne) indicated Friday, June 24 to Agence France-Presse (AFP) to have opened several investigations for rape in four large schools located on the Saclay plateau, in Essonne south of Paris, after having received “several complaints”.
“Speech has been released” in “closed places where it was difficult to speak and be heard because it was necessary to preserve the reputation of the establishments”, welcomed the public prosecutor Caroline Nisand, who opened investigations at CentraleSupélec, the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Polytechnique and at the Institute of Optics. Among these rape investigations, three were entrusted to judges: one at CentraleSupélec and two at ENS.
The complainants are all students, who denounce recent events that have taken place in recent years, and the suspicions relate to other students: there is no, “at this time, from authority report” between the complainants and the suspects, specifies the prosecutor. The magistrate pointed out ” a dynamic “ freedom of speech which has contributed to “break self-censorship” and to “remove the omerta that reigned on campus” de Saclay, located in the suburbs of Paris. “It is encouraging that the victims dare to speak out and lodge a complaint. It’s up to the judiciary to do its job.”commented to AFP the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique nicknamed in France “the X”.
where shock
The magistrate believes that the floor was able to be released from the distribution of an internal questionnaire from the CentraleSupélec engineering school, which had revealed a hundred acts of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape over the year. university. The results of this internal investigation had been reported by the school management to the prosecutor of Évry, who then opened a preliminary investigation in October 2021 and went to the establishment to discuss with the students gathered in a full amphitheater, accompanied by the gendarmes. “The results of this survey have stunned us”had declared the principal of the school. “While we have been committed to the fight against gender-based and sexual violence for a long time, we were far from taking the exact measure of it”he added.
Now, two investigations are underway at CentraleSupélec, following two complaints of rape: one led by the prosecution and the other entrusted to an investigating judge. Similar revelations marked Polytechnique, where the management ” shocked “, had reported the results of an internal questionnaire to the courts. According to this questionnaire, one in four students surveyed said they had been the victim of sexual assault in their schooling and eleven students said they had been victims of rape or attempted rape. The prosecution had opened an investigation in April.
To date, the Évry prosecution has three preliminary investigations in progress, following two complaints of rape at Polytechnique and a report. Two investigations at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) were also entrusted, in early June, to judges for rape and sexual assault, following two complaints. A preliminary investigation is underway at the Institut d’Optique for rape and sexual assault.