Teen Hero Honored: 14-Year-Old Saves Toddler from Drowning in French Park

An exploit not like the others. In the Loire Department, the heroic act carried out by Marwan quickly mobilized the authorities at various levels, to congratulate the young middle school student in order to motivate his classmates to do the same and why not, to arouse vocations.

It was during a special ceremony organized last Wednesday at the Jean-Dasté college in Saint-Étienne that Marwan’s exploit was celebrated. The teenager, who has become the hero of this Stéphanois establishment, had indeed succeeded, two weeks earlier, in saving a little boy from drowning in a basin in the Château de Versailles park. It was more precisely on May 22, when Marwan was participating in a school trip with the SEGPA section of the Jean-Dasté college.

Marwan, who was feeding swans next to a basin in the park, like other visitors, says he heard "a mother scream that a little one had fallen into the basin". The middle school student adds: "I saw that no one was helping him, so I took my courage in both hands and jumped into the water". The rest moved more than one. "I saw a little head come out of the water and I understood that he was saving a 3 or 4 year old child," testifies Alain Georges, a SEGPA teacher at the Jean-Dasté college, who witnessed the scene.

While the entire college team saluted the bravery of the middle school student, the Loire Departmental Council and the firefighters organized a ceremony for Marwan at the college, during which the teenager received a medal from the hands of Georges Ziegler, President of the Department, and another from the firefighters of the Loire. "This is the first time it has been awarded to a child outside the firefighter framework," notes Alain Mailhé, the director of the SDIS of the Loire. For his part, Roland Romeyer, president of the AS Saint-Étienne directorate, had Marwan wear a club jersey with his first name on it.