A 15-year-old teenager, victim of harassment during the previous school year, committed suicide on Tuesday evening at his home in Poissy (Yvelines), but justice calls for caution on the causes of the action. “An investigation is underway, but the first elements that have been brought up [au ministère] by its services clearly attest that acts of harassment had been declared during the 2022-2023 school year.explained, Wednesday, September 6, the Ministry of National Education.
The new Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, who declared on his arrival at the ministry that he wanted to work towards a response “relentless” to harassment, “exchanged with the victim’s mother on the phone and showed her her absolute support”said the cabinet of Mr. Attal, who will speak at a press briefing at the end of the day.
Open investigation
An investigation has been opened into the cause of the death, which occurred on Tuesday. “We have to be very careful at this stage”, told Agence France-Presse the Versailles prosecutor’s office. Tuesday, at the beginning of the evening, the emergency services intervened at the home of this boy but, after attempts of resuscitation, without success, the teenager was declared dead, according to a police source. The family spoke of harassment suffered in the establishment attended by the youngster last year, the same source continued.
This teenager was previously educated at the Adrienne-Bolland vocational high school in Poissy for the 2022-2023 school year and had been enrolled since September in a vocational high school in 14e arrondissement of Paris, according to this same source. The fight against school bullying, already initiated by the former Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, intensified this summer, after the death of schoolgirl Lindsay, who brought to light the phenomenon of bullying in schools but also on social networks.
According to a decree published in mid-August, a student responsible for school bullying can now be transferred to another school, avoiding imposing this change on the victim. It is also planned to be able to sanction a perpetrator of cyberbullying against a student from another establishment.
In colleges and high schools, the decree extends “the scope of the disciplinary procedure in cases in which pupils commit acts of harassment against pupils located in another establishment”. At the time of publication of this text, Gabriel Attal had assured that he wanted a “zero tolerance against all forms of harassment”.
From this start of the school year, a referent on harassment “in each establishment” must be created. This could be a nurse, a senior educational adviser or a teacher. Schools should also report “systematically” harassment cases to prosecutors. At the same time, a new interministerial plan should be unveiled by the end of September.