In Toulouse, a 7-year-old boy spent 2 hours with a stranger after the child's recreation center made a serious mistake. They handed the boy over to a stranger, who had come for another, without even verifying his identity.
It was an immeasurable concern that overwhelmed a father in Toulouse on January 6. In fact, while his son joined the recreation center of the school next to his own like every Wednesday – his elementary school not being a recreation center on Wednesdays – in a special bus, he did not leave it again. at the right time, nor with the right person.
Generally, Damien's parents, -whose real first name is not this one, because the father wishes anonymity for him and his son and therefore chose to use aliases-, come to pick him up at 6.30 p.m. But that day, Christian, Damien's father, received a phone call around 5:30 p.m. He will remember it all his life.
A very disturbing phone call
It's the manager of the recreation center on the other end of the phone. She tries somehow to defuse what just happened, and asks the dad to come and pick up his son very quickly. It was then that Christian learned that his son had spent 2 hours with a stranger, from 2 to 4 p.m.
The recreation center and the stranger in question would both have the wrong child, just that.
What happened ?
The stranger arrived at the recreation center at 2:00 p.m., saying that a friend of hers asked him to pick up her son for him. Although the host at the reception initially refused, he eventually gave in, the man being extremely pushy. So it is Damien that the host confides in the stranger, without even verifying each other's identity. But Damien's parents never asked anyone to come pick up his son.
No one realizes the mistake, not the stranger, the center, or Damien, until the mother of the boy who should have been picked up calls the man. When she asks to speak to her son, she realizes that it is not hers. The stranger then immediately brings Damien back to the recreation center. How could the facilitator have mistaken the child and confided in him without even inquiring? How did the stranger not realize his mistake (just by calling the child by his first name, for example)?
The Toulouse town hall has been very shy since this incident, and admits that the host made a double mistake: that of letting a child leave outside the fixed hours, and that of not having verified the identity of the child and of the unknown. A mistake that could have been dramatic if the man's intentions had been different. Christian went to the city's Childhood and Recreation municipal office on Friday morning, and his manager apologized to him.
The disciplinary council will decide on the sanction. The town hall tries to keep up appearances and specifies that the educational team of the Jean Alphand leisure center "fhas been doing exemplary work for years ".
Two attempts to file a complaint later
The father of the child in the stranger obviously tried to press charges against the recreation center, but both of his requests were turned down. Indeed, the fault committed does not constitute an offense, but a professional fault. After that, Damien's father put up a handrail and contacted a lawyer to make sure his rights were respected. The juvenile brigade promised to support the prosecution and that it would be contacted quickly.
Christian also asked the town hall to arrange a meeting with the stranger in the apartment where his son spent 2 hours. “My son looks fine, but I don't know what happened, deep down. And a week later, I don't know anything, not even the name of this stranger with whom my child spent two hours, alone at home”, He confides to France Bleu. We can hardly imagine the concern Damien's parents felt, and we hope the young boy is doing well.