France is under the spell of a striking death of a school principal. Stéphane Vitel was on holiday with his family on Friday morning when he received a call in the car that the alarm had gone off in his school. When the man went to take a look and did not return, it was his daughter who went to investigate. She found her father’s body not much later.
The striking case took place in Lisieux, a town with a population of just under 20,000 in Normandy, northwestern France. Vitel (48) received the report about the alarm in the Pierre-Simon de La Place college around 6:00 am. He turned around and was at the school building an hour later. While the director walked towards the building, his wife and two children remained behind in the car.
Shortly thereafter, the man returned to his family. He had forgotten his phone and wanted it with him. “He said a door was wide open. He left with his mobile phone,” says his wife Jeanne Mailhos Vitel in return for BFMTV.
After that, it took a long time for her husband to return, she says. My daughter got impatient. She went to look and she found him lying on the floor… so she came out screaming, ‘He’s on the floor, he’s on the floor!’.” to resuscitate, but to no avail. Stéphane Vitel had passed away.
He’s on the floor, he’s on the floor!
Burglary
Jeanne Mailhos Vitel is convinced that her husband was killed by violence. She allegedly told the police that her husband had a head injury. She had also seen a car driving away at high speed. That was just before she herself entered the school building.
According to local media, the public prosecutor’s office in France has now confirmed that the building was broken into through a side door. There would have been a light inside. There would have been no disorder in the building. the public prosecutor of Lisieux, Delphine Mienniel, reports on Saturday that it is now ‘a suspicious death’ and that the judicial police have launched an investigation. An autopsy on the body should provide more clarity on the director’s death on Monday.
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‘passionate’
Stéphane Vitel would have started his second year as principal of the secondary school with 266 students in September. Before that, he had been principal of a high school in Livarot for years and was active in local politics. “He was so committed to the kids that they would be successful. He worked 70-hour weeks. He was in the corridors all the time and in the square at every break,” says his wife.
Sébastien Leclerc, the mayor of Lisieux, uses more or less the same words. He speaks of a ‘passionate’ school principal who was close to the students and teachers. “He was a very kind and empathetic person. Always paid attention to the students, their parents and the teachers.” Several students, former students and parents gathered yesterday and today at the fence around the school building to leave flowers and written messages.
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The French Minister of Education has also made himself heard. He did this via X, formerly Twitter. ‘I join with the pain and emotion of the teachers, students and staff who are mourning the death of Stéphane Vitel (…) An investigation is ongoing. My thoughts and my full support go out to his family and his colleagues,” Gabriel Attal wrote.
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