Four college students were found guilty on Monday of school harassment but not Lucas’ suicide. This 13-year-old teenager from Golbey (Vosges) killed himself at the start of the year.
The criminal lawyer Laure Boutrou-Marmion is divided, after four teenagers were found guilty, Monday, June 5 by the children’s court of Epinal, of harassment but not of the suicide of Lucas. “This is the first time that minors have been convicted of bullying at school”, she notes. However, she believes that“by decorrelating suicide from harassment”Justice “sends a terrible message”. “It doesn’t hold up legally, but it doesn’t hold up psychologically either”.
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franceinfo: What was your reaction to the decision of the Epinal juvenile court?
Laure Boutrou-Marmion: Obviously, this Monday’s decision will be a landmark, insofar as it is the first time that minors have been convicted of school harassment, but for the rest, what a disappointment! By decorrelating suicide from harassment, what message do we give?
“Does this mean that our young people are committing suicide for no reason? It’s not serious”
Laure Boutrou-Marmion, criminal lawyerat franceinfo
Not only does it not hold up legally, but it does not hold up psychologically either. From the moment a judge says that school bullying is proven, to what extent do we consider that Lucas’ suicide is not, in one way or another, a consequence of this psychological explosion?
Do you think that clears the harassers of their responsibility?
I think it sends a terrible message to everyone on the channel. By choosing not to go all the way and not to go all the way, the legal institution is saying in a way that, ultimately, bullying at school is not so serious since in the case where you have a child harassed who went as far as the unspeakable, it is not the fault of this harassment. It’s awful.
Is the work currently being carried out within the establishments effective, even though the harassment continues outside?
We are making progress on this subject but, as it is a matter of mentality, we are obviously progressing slowly since everyone has to become aware of the seriousness of the subject. There is also a lack of means often pointed out by the associations which in any case slows down this progress. Finally, in this PHARe program of the Ministry of National Education, we do not put enough parents of harassers as harassed in the loop. When harassed children report information, teachers and school heads must discuss with the parents of the harassers and the harassed.
>> School harassment: “We must force schools and colleges to put in place more systematic sanctions”, pleads a criminal lawyer
Is this fight against harassment not in vain when the effects of packs are unfortunately inherent in the behavior of adolescents?
The fight against bullying is obviously difficult, because the world of adolescence is inherently quite cruel and quite violent. And we are in the group effect. Simply, today, we cannot fail to react insofar as, compared to 10 or 20 years ago, there are social networks which act as a sounding board. Before, it was already a problem. Today, it becomes unbreathable and it is a question of suicide! Everyone has a role to play, including the parents of young people.