The mother of young Nicolas, who committed suicide after being bullied at school, highlights the failings of the National Education system

Following a silent march in memory of her son, Béatrice Le Blay announced the filing of a complaint against an unknown person with civil action for involuntary manslaughter.

“How many suicides will it take before this stops?”her son had asked her. The mother of Nicolas, a 15-year-old teenager who killed himself in September 2023 after being harassed at high school, denounced the failings of the National Education system during a silent march in Poissy (Yvelines), Thursday, September 5.

“The education system has failed in its missions”accused Beatrice Le Blay during the march in tribute to her son. Gathered in front of his grave, a hundred people dressed in white, as well as political figures, listened to the mother of the deceased. “Remembering his words, I feel like he sacrificed himself.”she lamented before leading the march under a rainy sky from the cemetery to the high school where her son lived a “Calvary”.

On September 5, 2023, she discovered her son’s body, hanged, at their home. The teenager had complained in the first months of the 2022-2023 school year of harassment in his class at the high school and his parents had alerted the teaching team. But given the lack of response from the school, they had sent a letter to the principal. The rectorate had reacted by judging their attitude “unacceptable” and discussed the criminal risks of an inaccurate report. “From victim, he became guilty”his mother summed up.

Present on site, the outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal denounced the “poison” harassment “whose antidote is in each and every one of us”At the time Minister of Education, he described the letter from the Versailles rectorate as “shame” and ordered an administrative investigation.

At the end of the silent march, Béatrice Le Blay, who repeatedly praised the attention paid to her by several political leaders, nevertheless deplored not knowing more about the progress of the ongoing administrative investigation. “We consider that there was involuntary homicide. (…) Faced with this series of serious failings, we have decided to file a complaint against unknown persons with civil action.”she announced. Her counsel told AFP that an initial complaint to the police station had been filed in September 2023, but that the complaint with civil action would be filed this Thursday.