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Teacher On Trial For Manslaughter After Pupil 'Hanged Himself In Cor

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  • Teacher On Trial For Manslaughter After Pupil 'Hanged Himself In Cor

    TEACHER ON TRIAL FOR MANSLAUGHTER AFTER PUPIL 'HANGED HIMSELF IN CORRIDOR'

    The Times, UK
    September 24, 2013 Tuesday 5:08 PM GMT

    by Adam Sage, Paris

    An 11-year-old boy hanged himself on a coat hook after being ordered
    out of his classroom and left for 45 minutes in a primary school
    corridor, a French court was told today.

    Agnès Maulard-Lelong, 42, his teacher, denied charges of manslaughter
    and endangering life as she went on trial over the death of Khoren
    Grimaldi.

    However, she told Tarascon Criminal Court in the South of France that
    she felt "morally responsible" for what had happened in May 2011.

    The court was told that Mrs Maulard-Lelong, a teacher in the Anne Frank
    school in Arles, Provence, had told the boy to leave the classroom
    when he refused to do a grammar exercise.

    "In class, pupils work," she said, according to evidence given
    in court.

    "You don't want to work so go in the corridor with the coats, which
    don't work."

    Three quarters of an hour later, the boy was found unconscious, hanging
    from a coat hook by his T-shirt, the court was told. School staff
    were unable to revive him and he died in hospital three days later.

    Laure Grimaldi, Khoren's mother, said that her son had taken the
    teacher at her word as a joke in an attempt to "wriggle out of the
    punishment".

    However, she said that Mrs Maulard-Lelong had failed in her duty to
    keep an eye on Khoren - a name of Armenian origin that means Little
    Sun - while he was in the corridor.

    Mrs Grimaldi and Nicolas, her husband, brought a private prosecution
    to prevent such an event from happening again, their lawyer, Maître
    Louis Sayn-Urpar, told the court.

    He said: "Mrs Maulard-Lelong could not see Khoren and that is what
    made the accident possible."

    Mr Sayn-Urpar said that when other teachers in the school ordered
    pupils out of the classroom, they told them to sit opposite the door
    to remain visible.

    "If Mrs Maulard-Lelong had acted in the same way, Khoren would be
    with us today," he said.

    The court was also told that school regulations allowed teachers to
    inflict a "momentary period of isolation" on turbulent pupils.

    Mr Sayn-Urpar said that the 45 minutes Khoren spent in the corridor
    were "unusually long" and "do not correspond to the regulations." The
    court was told that Khoren had asked to be let back into the classroom
    after half an hour. Mrs Maulard-Lelong had told him: "I don't want
    to see you any more."

    The teacher denied that Khoren had been left on his own, saying:
    "Pupils went out to talk to him." She said she had kept her job
    in the school and had the support of her colleagues and the local
    education authority.

    Vincent Mick, the prosecutor, called for Mrs Maulard-Lelong to be
    found not guilty, saying there was no case to answer.

    She had committed a professional mistake, but not a crime in the eyes
    of the law, he said.

    The teacher faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a
    five of (EURO)75,000 (£63,000) if found guilty.

    The court will deliver its judgment on October 29.

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