In an interview with Sunday newspaperthe mother of Nicolas, the teenager victim of school bullying who committed suicide in Poissy at the beginning of September, castigates the “rude” response of the Versailles rectorate to her requests for action in the face of what her son was going through.
“We were victims, we became guilty!” The mother of Nicolas, a 15-year-old teenager who committed suicide on September 5 in Poissy, in Yvelines, denounces the response of the Versailles rectorate to her requests for action in the face of the harassment that her son suffered at school.
According to a letter unveiled by BFMTV on Saturday,The rectorate had described as “unacceptable” comments from parents who would have “questioned” the attitude of the school staff.
They had sent a letter to the principal of the establishment where Nicolas was educated, in which they considered his lack of reaction “incomprehensible”. “We will therefore file a complaint and consider you responsible if a disaster were to happen to our son,” they said.
Enjoining parents to adopt a “constructive and respectful attitude” towards them, the letter from the rectorate also reminded them of the criminal risks of slanderous denunciation.
“We were outraged”
Upon reading the letter, the teenager’s mother, Béatrice, became “blackly angry”, she told the Sunday newspaper. “We were outraged. We were now seen as guilty. It was too much. From that moment on, Nicolas was never the same. It was so rude and above all unfair,” she lambasted.
The mother received support from the government after the broadcast of this response from the rectorate. “This letter is a shame, a shame,” declared the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, on Saturday. He recalled that an administrative investigation had started to shed light on the acts of school harassment of which this boy had been a victim, but also on the management of this matter by the National Education services.
He will bring together “from Monday all the rectors, for an audit in all the rectorates on all situations of harassment reported to the rectorates over the past year”, he also announced.
Shortly before this intervention, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne described as “shocking” the tone of the missive sent by the Versailles rectorate on May 4, 2023 to the parents of the high school student. “There was clearly a failure in the type of response addressed to parents who were extremely worried,” she added.
“He couldn’t stand injustice”
Today, Béatrice expects the authorities “to do their investigative work, to determine the responsibilities of each person and to sanction them according to the extent of their failure”.
Nearby JDDshe underlined the impact that the insufficient response, according to her, of her son’s establishment to the harassment he was experiencing had had:
“Nicolas needed to know that his suffering was heard and recognized and that even a symbolic sanction had been taken against these two students.”
“Before these school events, he had very high ideals of justice and adults. He could not stand injustice. After these events, he no longer trusted either one or the other,” he said. she explains.
Two numbers dedicated to harassment
Any student who is a victim of school bullying can contact the national hotline number 3020 free of charge. The student or their loved ones can also contact 3018 in the event of cyberbullying. This number can be reached 7 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.