For three days, the parents of the 120 students from Blancarde (12th) left Monday morning for a sea class in Frioul and repatriated, Tuesday evening, in a hurry and panic did not take off. The Léo-Lagrange center infested with bed bugs, it was necessary to deal with all the cases, to treat their children victims of bites. Some have developed an allergic reaction. “And above all, to face the nightmares and the trauma that this experience has broughtsays a mother. They were in pajamas, tired, in tears, with their things hastily collected in a garbage bag. They took a shuttle in the middle of the mistral, at night. Just that, it shakes. So, more bites…“But psychosis is gaining ground and parents are dreading further injections at home. So the questions are swirling and stirring up anger.”Did the officials of the Léo-Lagrange center know? Many of us think so“, notes a member of the parents’ association, pointing to a press release sent to the school management, stipulating that the “disinfection protocol had been initiated on March 10“Three days before the arrival of Blancarde’s students.
“And it was a mistake“, admits the director of the Frioul centre, Marie-Hélène Tomasi. Supporting emails, she confirms that she was aware of the presence of bed bugs in two of her eleven bungalows. “We are in the opening period and we had opened four bungalows for a school from March 6 to 10. On Monday, the day of arrival of the Blancarde school, we received an email from one of the teachers of the previous classes who warned us that some boys who shared the same dorm had been bitten by bed bugs. We immediately closed and treated these two bungalows through an outside company. We did not think that the others, which had just reopened for the season, were also infested. This is the eleventh season I’ve been here, I’ve never had to deal with the problem.“Like the managing director of the associative group, Pascal Carrano, the manager of the center of the archipelago does not seek to flee her”health responsibility“. “However, I am not guilty“, she pleads, insisting on the health protocols put in place during the closure of the center scheduled until March 24 and the consequences on the rest of the season.
Parents who have decided to keep their children at home fear the return to school on Monday. For its part, the rectorate, which has canceled the next stays in Frioul, insists: “Bedbug infestation does not fit into outbreak protocol“. Classes will therefore remain open. And a listening unit was set up on Thursday within the school grounds. Twenty children have already been welcomed.
This mother testifies: “the nightmare is not over”
Three days of nightmare. Since she went to pick up her two children (CE2 and CM1) on Tuesday evening, in an emergency on the quay, this mother from the Blancarde school has lived in fear of the next day. “My daughter was not stung but she was marked by this return in the middle of the night, on the shuttle which brought them back from Friuli, many of them were crying. My son was stung 86 times. Bed bugs but also caterpillars. Because yes, there were also caterpillars. Moreover, we made him change bungalows, an hour after his installation. Which means everyone there knew about it… But in the other dorm, there were bedbugs too…“, she lets go. Angry, like all the parents concerned, she had to chain appointments with the doctor and trips to the laundromat. “The next morning, I was there at 6:30. And I wasn’t the only one… We undressed them in front of the door, but we had to disinfect the car too. My son is on antibiotics and ointment, he suffers from terrible itching. He was bitten all over“, she continues. But for her, as for others, it’s the double penalty, “because I had no choice but to leave them at school this week. We treat this scourge as best we can. But is it the same for others? We have no guarantees. And we don’t know what will be decided next week.“
This mom knows it. She could count ona team of teachers and parents of students who knew how to manage the crisis on site“. More, “we are waiting for the rest, to see how it evolves“, she says. “Besides the bites, I found my daughter and my son completely distraught on Tuesday evening. They left the center at night, without eating after a day of kayaking, they took the boat in the middle of the mistral. We talked a lot, we took the time to explain. But I don’t think this nightmare is over…“