During the night from Saturday to Sunday, Valentin Gomes, a 23-year-old student in 5th year at the Polytech Lille engineering school, was killed while participating in a “weekend of cohesion” in the Ardennes. If we still ignore the causes of death, social networks are igniting, drawing a parallel between integration and hazing. A practice refuted as much by the former as by the current students of the school who rather put forward the very framed organization of the event.
On social networks, under each article relating the tragedy that occurred during the week-end of cohesion (WEC) of Polytech Lille, many Internet users criticize a practice which they qualify as “hazing”. A priori that the students of the school who participated in the event try to dismantle as well as the alumni who participated in previous WECs. “There has never been any hazing at Polytech”, “none of that at Polytech”, “no hazing has taken place”, can we read on Twitter in particular.
A “charter of good manners”
The “WEC 2021” simply could not have taken place without a rigorous organization on the part of the Student Office (BDE). It was still a question of taking around 400 students to spend several days in an upscale campsite in the middle of the Ardennes. To detail the process for the participants, the BDE had planned a mandatory information meeting upstream. “You will be refused entry to the WEC if you have not confirmed your presence during this conference”, insist the organizers.
According to our information, the participants also had to sign several charters, in particular a “charter of good manners”, which prohibited, among other things, “to consume or hold narcotics”, “to bring and consume personal alcohol. “, To force a” person to participate in an activity against their will “or” to force a person to consume alcohol “. The BDE also had a “liability waiver” completed in the event of “accident or damage caused” in which the participant undertakes to accept “the internal regulations, as well as all safety instructions”.
The BDE “irreproachable as regards security”
In fact, everything seemed as square as on paper. “The organization offered by the BDE, if it could have been criticized on the number of activities offered or on the wait for meals, was irreproachable as regards safety”, confides to 20 minutes a participant in the WEC. He confirms the presence on site of “the Red Cross and Samu” and assures that there were, moreover, “always at least two members of the BDE at each of the two entrances bordered by the campsite road”.
Despite everything, the drama could not be avoided during the evening from Saturday to Sunday “on the theme of the jungle”. To our colleagues from the Northern voice, a student present on the spot explained that Valentin Gomes “had drunk well” but that we had also “refused to serve him again”. It is the investigation opened by the prosecutor’s office of Charleville-Mézières which will have to determine the course of the events which led to the death of the young man and the possible responsibilities.