When he welcomed the new class of medical students at the beginning of September, the dean of the Rouen faculty concluded his remarks with a very clear slide: “Beware of the risk of rape.” In the amphitheater, “There was a long gap”says Benoît Veber. “I explain to them that losing control due to alcohol consumption puts students at risk and that waking up with a stranger in the middle of the night without remembering anything will have consequences.explains. I explain to the students that rape is not a method of seduction, that it is a crime that gives rise to a complaint to the prosecutor if I am aware of it.
Since 1998, hazing has been classified by law as a crime: causing others, against their will or not, to suffer or commit humiliating or degrading acts or to consume alcohol in excess, during demonstrations or meetings linked to educational, sporting and socio-educational environments. It is punishable by six months in prison and a fine of 7,500 euros. But “The dean’s word is not enough”Benoît Veber notes: the next day, after an evening of integration, “Two mothers came to tell me that their daughters had not returned that night and that the police had found their bags”.
On September 4, in Lille, the criminal court was due to try three medical students: two for hazing and inciting excessive alcohol consumption and one for complicity in hazing. The events date back to July 8, 2021. Newly trained as a doctor, Simon Guermonprez, 19, who almost never consumed alcohol, according to his parents, drank a large amount using a huge syringe placed in his mouth. He died in the early hours of July 9, hit by a truck on the road, after apparently trying to retrieve his cell phone on the road.
“Systemic violence”
The parents’ lawyer, M.my Damien Legrand, obtained the postponement of the trial until February 11, 2025. Objective: that justice pursue not only the three students, but also the Faculty of Medicine of Lille, so that the event “the hazing trial”, He explains. A report from the general inspectorate of education, sport and research, dated March 2022, but communicated to the lawyer at the end of August 2024, highlights, on the part of the local dean, a “desire for secrecy, especially in the absence of any disciplinary procedure linked to violence or the integration of medical students for many years, facts widely known to all”.
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