Passed in silence for too long years, the methods and actions of the teaching team of the L’Atelier de Sèvres art school (6th) are now known to all. A new investigation for rape was opened in 2021, we learned on Monday, September 20.
The facts go back to a long period between 2003 and 2018. For nearly 15 years, the director of the Atelier de Sèvres (6th) – prestigious preparatory class for the competitive examinations of Fine Arts schools which also offers masters – reigned master of this school, where he applied himself with great zeal to humiliate, abuse and touch his students.
An unhealthy climate, in which he had embarked his companion, also a teacher, as well as a number of other teachers. Together, between 2007 and 2019, they thus established “a climate imbued with sexist remarks, scenes of humiliation, evenings where teachers and students mix during alcoholic moments and sexual violence”, as revealed by Mediapart this Monday, September 20.
Testimonials by the dozen
Mathilde * remembers the couple very well: she describes the first one as “sick” and her partner as “very cold woman”. If she assures not to have suffered humiliations on their part, she explains that there were “dirty rumors” about their actions “with students”.
In place for barely two years at the time, the director already had, according to her, an unhealthy ancestry on his classes. “I did not go to parties but, in fact, it was common knowledge that he slept with the students”, explains the one who was a student at the Atelier de Sèvres in 2009.
On the instagram account “My art, not my ass” (which can be translated as “My artistic work, not my ass”) – which lists the many scenes of humiliation and aggression suffered by women in this scene. middle -, the former director is not spared.
“It was more or less known”, testifies this first pupil, who underlines that “the professors, but also certain handlers of the school, aged at least 10 years older than the pupils, slept with them”.
And to tell, speaking of the director: “he touched our buttocks, gripped our necks. Once, in the evening, he forced the lock of the toilet where I was […] and began to lower his fly. A friend arrived and yelled at him to get out ”.
“I can see exactly who she’s talking about, no need for a name or description. It’s scary, ”we can read in the comments of the publication. “We all know who she’s talking about!” All the ex-students of this preparation have “stories” to throw at the teachers but there are so many … “, writes this other.
LICENSED INVOLVED TEACHERS
Everything stops in 2019, after the departure of this famous director. Immediately informed, his replacement Yann Fabès opens an internal investigation and collects a dozen testimonies, reported to justice. And the teachers involved – at least “5 teachers laid off” including 4 dismissed for “serious misconduct” according to the independent news site – have left the establishment.
Since then, an investigation has been opened in 2019 for acts of sexual harassment and sexual assault, the investigations of which have been entrusted to the 3rd District of Judicial Police (DPJ). Then another this year, entrusted to the 1st DPJ, for rape. The two investigations are “still ongoing”, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“We have supported the victims and dismissed the teachers involved in these intolerable acts, which we strongly condemn,” said the current director, who explains having set up a series of “conferences on gender-based violence and sexual ”to raise awareness among students and teachers.
Asked about this, the mayor of the 6th arrondissement Jean-Pierre Lecoq assures us “to ignore all of these facts” and discovered in the press on Monday the tumults experienced by the Atelier de Sèvres at that time.
* the first name has been changed