“Every time you see it, you think about it”

Forced to have lessons in common with her attacker, a student has just abandoned her college education. She deplores the lack of communication and support from her school, the Institut maritime du Québec, which has forgotten “that she was human”, according to her.

Florence Morin-Martel
Press

Fall 2020. At the age of 17, Chloé * recently left her family home in Montreal to study at the Institut maritime du Québec in Rimouski, the only one in North America that offers marine mechanical engineering training in French. On October 7, while she was studying in her room in a private residence, a student from her program broke into her home, she says.

“He pushed me against the wall, he managed to kiss me and then he pushed me towards the bed,” says Chloe. I put my leg on and pushed it back, then I went for a run. After about twenty minutes spent outside, she returned to her room making sure the student was gone. The latter would have tried again to enter several times during the evening. “He was trying to tear off the doorknob,” recounts the young woman, who finally had to ask a friend to come to her house.

The next day, Chloe contacted her school’s teaching aid because she was unable to go to an exam, she says. After she recounted the previous day’s event, staff members reportedly gave her “tips for dealing with [son] stress ”, without ever recommending that he file a complaint with the police, she maintains.

Joined by Press, Mélanie Leblanc, director of the Institut maritime du Québec, assures us that “anyone who requests it receives personalized and close support”. “The well-being of our students is at the heart of our management,” she writes.

In February 2021, Chloe learned that her attacker would have spoken of her intention to commit this gesture a week before the facts. She then decides to file a complaint with the Rimouski police department against the student, who was also a minor. The law forbids us to identify him. The complaint is upheld and charges are laid, but the result of a psychological assessment determines that the student is not criminally responsible, due to mental disorder. However, Chloe is officially recognized as a victim of a crime by the Compensation for victims of crime.

With her parents, Chloe would then have asked the school not to have any more common lessons with her attacker. However, the Institute said that it was “impossible to change its schedule so that no course is in the presence of the other student”, we read in an exchange of emails obtained by Press. Rather, the school offers the young woman psychological support, postponements of exams or assignments. In an email, the establishment said to inform teachers of a mandatory distance to maintain between the two students in class.

The Institute claims that it cannot process Chloe’s denunciation through its policy against sexual violence, since the event took place outside the college. This policy only applies during activities “organized by members of the college community taking place inside and outside the various components of the College when these are related to work or studies”, writes school.

However, the policewoman to whom she made the denunciation “had called the school and she strongly recommended that we not have lessons together,” says the young woman. It was ignored ”. Result: Chloe has several lessons in common with the young man who attacked her. “There are several times in class when I was stressed out instead of listening to the material,” she says.

The Maritime Institute would have assured Chloe that he would follow up with her to inform her of any changes that could affect her. However, since she had no news, she would have decided to contact the school at the start of the fall 2021 school year. She learned five minutes before the start of classes that the man who entered her room was going. be present in one of her classes, she says.

In order to avoid the joint course, the establishment allegedly suggested that she abandon all her third-term courses and keep only those of the first term that she was in the process of resuming. What Chloe refused. For his part, the other student did not agree to drop out of the course in question.

Chloe says she tried to “adapt” and continue her session. Without success. “Every time you see it, you think about it,” she recounts.

To suffer “all the consequences”

Today, Chloe has dropped out of school and is relieved to be back in the metropolis. But the young woman says that she is not angry with the Institute.

Nathalie *, Chloe’s mother, deplores that it was not possible to change the schedule to accommodate her daughter, a request which “was not huge”, she pleads. “All the consequences are for her,” she laments. His life plans have changed. ”

Nathalie is surprised that the school staff did not advise her daughter to file a complaint with the police. “These are basic things,” she argues.

“Destabilizing” situations

In cases of sexual violence, the important thing for victims is to feel safe, underlines Geneviève Pagé, professor in the department of political science at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Without commenting on any particular case, she considers that it is “destabilizing to know that institutions do not accommodate such light requests in relation to such pervasive violence”.

Especially since a class is a context for speaking out, which is certainly a trigger for memories for the victim. “It is unthinkable to make believe that the survivor can learn in this context, underlines M^me Page. If there is no accommodation, she is ordered to change programs, CEGEPs or careers. ”

* The first names of minors at the time of the facts as well as those of the parents have been changed in order to preserve anonymity, as prescribed by law.