Fights, sexual harassment, damage, theft… A summer camp turns into a nightmare

NEWS
LETTERS

fun, news, tips… what else?

In the holiday center of Saint-Lary-Soulan (Hautes-Pyrénées), the colony has turned into a nightmare. As reported by “Midi libre” on August 11, the organizers of the stay decided to send the children and adolescents home because of the violence caused by some of them.

The relaxation petered out. This Wednesday, August 10, more than 80 children aged 7 to 15 from a summer camp in Saint-Lary-Soulan (Hautes-Pyrénées) have been sent home, in Angouleme (Charente). Fights, damage, intimidation, theft, sexual harassment, attempted suicide… From the start of the stay, the gendarmes had to intervene twice. However, these young people had to spend fifteen days of well-deserved rest within the framework of the Caf’s “first departures” operation, which allows underprivileged children to go on vacation. Near Free lunch on August 11, an official of the Charente Federation of Secular Works (FCOL) admitted it without hesitation: “What we have just experienced is unheard of. We are trying to get the children to breathe, but they will take well over a week to evacuate what they have experienced.” From the first evening, discipline problems had arisen. “A 13-year-old boy wanted to impose his law” upon arrival, told the director of the colony, Konstantina Moschou, in The Midi Dispatch. The chaos lasted for several days. At night, they poured yoghurt on our heads, they were kicking us. The animators spoke badly to us… The director told us: ‘Go away, you are jesters'”, for his part testified a teenager. Worse, 12 year old tried to end her life wrapping a belt around his neck.

Insults, damage and threats: whose responsibility is it?

The direction of the Caf, partner of this stay, defended itself this Thursday from not having “an operational responsibility neither in the registration of children by the families via the operators nor in the management of the stay”. The Café de l’Hérault will ask “a detailed report to the operator and will ensure, for the next departures, strict compliance with the standards of the regulations in force”.

For his part, Jean-François Arrivé-Beylot, head of the young sector of the FCOL, denounces a lack of information on young people registered on the part of the Caf. Nowadays, several parents, both from Charente and Occitanie, are considering a collective complaint. The head of the FCOL has also decided to take legal action for all the degradation and violence.

An indomitable snooper with an impertinent spirit, passionate about information on all sides and a disciple of unfailing self-mockery, Amandine has always liked to unearth, decipher but also surprise. Convinced of…

source site-39