Violence at school: a parent sentenced
On 17 September 2024, Mr C. struck his son L.C., then aged 16, on the premises of his school. Charged with violence against a minor by a parent or guardian, he appeared before the court in Marigot on 5 March.
The incident follows a report made by the school nurse. One day during term time, whilst attending to a pupil in the infirmary, she discovered that the pupil was in possession of a sum of money considered unusually large for a secondary school pupil. The teaching staff were alerted and summoned L.C.; he initially claimed the money was intended for the purchase of school textbooks, before admitting that he had taken some of it from his maternal grandmother’s belongings. The father, M.C., and the grandmother were then called to the school.
A violent scene in front of witnesses
According to the teaching staff’s testimonies, taken separately during hearings, M.C. slapped his son across the face — causing his glasses to fall off —, grabbed him by the hair, dragged him out of the room, and then punched him several times in the face. Four adults intervened to restrain him. A medical certificate issued shortly afterwards concluded that the victim was unfit for work for one day. In court, Mr C. admitted to having slapped his son several times, but disputed the nature of the other blows. He justified his reaction by citing his son’s attitude, which he deemed flippant and provocative. “His attitude was insolent; it annoyed me,” he told the court.
A fractured family history
L.C. was 17 years old at the time of the hearing. He has been living with his maternal grandmother since the incident. His mother died when he was four years old. The association France Victimes 978, appointed to represent him, stated that the young man had refused psychological support and described his relationship with his father as “chaotic”. At the hearing, M.C. was keen to place the events in a broader context. He claimed he had never had any problems with his son before, but that the boy had been going off the rails for some time: bad company, run-ins with the law, increasingly difficult behaviour. He confided that he now felt “overwhelmed by the situation”, no longer knew how to intervene to set his son back on the right path, and had “the feeling of having lost all control over him”. In view of his criminal record, the public prosecutor had sought a suspended sentence of eight months’ imprisonment, emphasising that the violence had been committed without restraint in the presence of several members of the National Education staff. After deliberation, the court found Mr C. guilty of the charges against him and sentenced him to a six-month suspended sentence. The case has been adjourned until 5 May 2026 to determine the civil damages.
