French court gives teacher suspended sentence over pupil's suicide

A French court Monday handed a suspended one-year jail sentence to a teacher for bullying an 11-year-old pupil who killed herself in 2019, in a rare such verdict in the country. 

The 63-year-old defendant, a secondary school teacher of French in the Val-d'Oise region north of Paris, had initially been acquitted last year, but was given a suspended sentence on appeal for the harassment of Evaelle, who was found hanged in her bedroom in 2019.

The woman, named only as Mrs B., was also banned from teaching ever again.

Evaelle's parents welcomed the judgment, saying it "lifted the veil on the abuse suffered by children at the hands of their teachers".

Prosecutors, who had called for a suspended 18-month sentence, said that the teacher had "crossed the line, humiliating, belittling and stigmatising -- not all pupils, but certain pupils who are carefully selected".

Mrs B., who was absent from the sentencing, had previously denied behaving in a hostile manner.

But during the investigation, a number of Evaelle's fellow pupils had said that the teacher frequently targeted the 11-year-old, with one child saying she "often shouted at her".  

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