Samara attack: what really happened hour by hour on April 2 near Arthur-Rimbaud college in Montpellier

The Ministry of National Education and Youth reveals this Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the summary report of the administrative investigation concerning the attack on Samara, a student at Arthur-Rimbaud college.

The college where Samara, a 13-year-old girl who was violently attacked on April 2, 2024 by other students, attended school, did not show negligence, declared this Tuesday April 30, 2024 Nicole Belloubet, the Minister of Education, reporting the conclusions of an administrative investigation.

A morning that went "normally"

The morning of Tuesday April 2 takes place normally at Arthur-Rimbaud college. At the end of the term, report card submission meetings are planned during the day before the start of spring break which begins on Friday of the same week. Samara's mother goes to the college for a meeting. Unable to attend the delivery of her daughter Samara's report cards at the end of the day, she makes a telephone appointment with her main teacher for mid-day in order to discuss the results and the educational orientation of her daughter. his daughter.

This Tuesday morning, Samara is in class and leaves the establishment at 11:30 a.m. for her lunch break. She will return for her 13-hour course. When Samara's homeroom teacher leaves the school at 12:30 p.m., he sees Samara having a verbal altercation with another student. He accuses him of having taken a photo of him, without his knowledge, with the intention of posting it on a "Fisha2" account. Samara refuses to show her cell phone to the student and the head teacher who asks her for it in order to resolve their dispute. Following the intervention of another student, present in front of the college, who attests to the fact that Samara did not take a photo, the situation calms down.

Shortly after, a group of four or five young people who are not attending college approach and ask Samara to come because they want to talk to her. The young people are not aggressive and ask Samara to follow her aside. They mention social networks in their remarks. Samara is calm and tells her teacher, who asks her the question, that she does not know them, nor know what they wanted. The head teacher interrupts a conversation he was having with a member of the college staff and intervenes, asking them to leave. They insist then leave and leave the square. The head teacher calls Samara's mother, as agreed between them, to talk about her daughter's 2nd trimester.

It’s 12:43 p.m. He begins by recounting the first sequence on the history of photography. The mother wants to speak to her daughter and asks her to show her cell phone to the teacher. The teacher does not insist any further because the conflict is over, the boy has withdrawn, and he no longer considers it necessary to look at the contents of Samara's phone. Then he evokes the 2nd sequence with the arrival of a group of young people wanting to speak in Samara. The head teacher indicates that he invited the mother to come and pick up her daughter but without further insistence since there was nothing to suggest that there could be a potential risk for Samara when she left class. Her mother agrees to come pick her up.

Samara's mother said, for her part, that the teacher told her: "that he feared for his daughter that she would be attacked&quot ;. The mission was unable to confirm these comments. Their conversation continues, without any sign of concern, on Samara's results in the 2nd quarter and on points concerning its direction. Samara returned to the college to resume her classes at 1 p.m. when the teacher left the college square.

The mother says "she called the establishment"

The mission establishes that the head teacher leaves the establishment convinced that the issue has been resolved, that the mother is informed of what has just happened, and that she does not show any particular concern at this time and that she will come out. The normal course of the day resumes. He believes that it will be enough for him to report on events in school life when he returns to college for the 5 p.m. meeting. Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., Samara's mother said she called the establishment twice to ask that her daughter not leave the school at the end of her classes. She attests, precisely, to having been able to speak to school life and pass on instructions. However, after hearing all the people directly concerned by these potential calls, and carrying out checks, nothing corroborates the words of Samara's mother.

The mission was therefore unable to recover objective evidence or consequently establish the reality of these two calls and therefore of its request to keep Samara inside the establishment. Between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., Samara is in class. She expresses the wish to go to the infirmary without specifying, to the teacher and the nursing staff, any particular reason other than a headache. Leaving classes between 4:10 p.m. and 4:25 p.m. is normal. Until 5 p.m. the square is quiet. There were no crowds, no visible groupings, nor any suspicious noise. Parents are present. They are waiting for the 5 p.m. ballot submission meeting.

Between 4:25 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. the establishment received a call from Samara's mother who asked if her daughter had gone out, if she had taken the bus and ;rsquo;there is a crowd in front of the school or if young people are waiting. We confirm to him that his daughter has gone out and that the square is calm with no crowds. Samara's mother says she encountered difficulties on the way to school which made her late. She finds her daughter on the way and takes care of her after the attack she has just suffered. Regarding the attack and its precise location, only the judicial investigation is competent to determine its exact location and course.

The attack would not have taken place in front of the college

In view of the testimonies collected, the mission notes, however, that the attack did not take place in front of the establishment as has been said or written. Shortly before 5 p.m., shortly after Samara's attack, her homeroom teacher returned to the school for her report card meeting. He sees a crowd about 200-300 meters from the college (out of visual field of the college square). He intervenes. A girl and a boy at school argue about Samara's attack. There is a lot of emotion among the students. Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., information on the attack that Samara suffered and its seriousness will gradually be known and communicated to those in charge of the establishment who are in end-of-term meetings with parents and in the board of directors. Contacts are made with the police, the academic authorities and Samara's mother

After having heard all the actors involved in the progress of the day of Tuesday April 2, the mission underlines that:

although Samara was questioned by young people on two occasions before 1 p.m., the situation appeared to be resolved and calmed for the head teacher present during these exchanges. Nothing could suggest, based on the information available to him, that Samara was in any danger, Samara herself having said she did not know the group who had questioned her and did not know what they were talking about. acted; although Samara may have appeared preoccupied in class that afternoon, she did not give a specific reason to people who explicitly asked her if she was having problems; although Samara's mother claims to have called the school twice between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to request that her daughter not leave the school after classes, these claims were contradicted by several testimonies. No proof of any other nature could be provided.

After having established and analyzed a precise chronology of the facts concerning Samara, the mission considers that nothing made it possible to anticipate the risk of an ambush directed against it.