More than 500 male students and staff were demanded to give DNA samples by French police on Monday to uncover who raped a 16-year-old girl in the toilets of a high school in western France, the Associated Press reported.
In an unprecedented operation, first for a French school, concerns over violation rights were raised after prosecutor Isabelle Pagenelle warned that anyone who refused to give a DNA sample would be considered a potential suspect and could be taken into custody.
No one had refused to participate in the DNA dragnet, which required parental permission for minors, on Monday in La Rochelle, Pagenelle said.
Expected to last through Wednesday, the testing of 475 male students, 31 teachers, and 21 other staff at Fenelon-Notre Dame high school will be carried out for being on the site at the time of the rape, Chron reported.
On Sep. 30, the girl was raped in a bathroom with the lights turned off. She had not been able to identify the attacker, the AP reported.
All other leads have been exhausted, Pagenelle said.
"The choice is simple for me," she said. "Either I file it away and wait for a match in what could be several years, or I go looking for the match myself."
Although genetic material was recovered from the girl's clothing, the police were not able to find any suspected matches in the country's DNA database.
About 3 percent of the population, a total of 2 million profiles on file as of 2012, is recorded in an extensive DNA database by French officials, Chron reported.
"This happened during the school day in a confined space," Chantal Devaux, the private Roman Catholic school's director, told French media. "The decision to take such a large sample was made because it was the only way to advance the investigation."
Any DNA results from eliminated suspects will be discarded, she said.
If investigators are unable to find any matches, investigators would be back to the drawing board, Devaux said.
"We think there is a strong probability that it's someone from inside, or at least someone who knows the building very well," Pagenelle said.
