Four 13-year-old minors will be “tried for school harassment having led the suicide” of young Lucasa teenager of the same age who ended his life in early January in Golbey (Vosges), and whose death had provoked great emotion.
“Following the opening of the preliminary investigation, four minors were placed in police custody by the urban security of the Epinal police station”, said in a press release the public prosecutor of Epinal, Frédéric Nahon. “During their hearings, the respondents, two girls and two boys aged 13, educated in the same establishment as Lucas, only admitted to having repeatedly made fun of their comrade”, continued the magistrate.
Homophobic insults
Lucas’ relatives believe he committed suicide following being harassed because of his homosexuality. “The facts took place from September 2022 to the beginning of January 2023”, continued the prosecutor. “At the end of their police custody, the four minors were summoned before the Epinal juvenile court to be tried for harassment at school which led to the suicide of the victim, the investigation having established that the harassment might have participate in the passage to the suicidal act of the young Lucas”.
“Presumed innocent, unknown to justice, the four minors will be assessed by the judicial protection of youth before their judgment”, also wanted to underline Frédéric Nahon. He also announced the opening of an “incidental investigation once morest X for non-denunciation of ill-treatment of minors”. “Investigations are therefore continuing on this point,” he concluded.
Lucas had written in his diary “a word explaining his desire to end his life”, Frédéric Nahon had declared at a press conference on January 13. His relatives revealed in their hearings the existence of mockery and insults of a homophobic nature of which the teenager had said he was a victim on the part of other students at his college, the magistrate had further underlined.
“Immense sadness”
Lucas was educated at Louis Armand college in Golbey, where a psychological unit was set up in the days following his suicide. The rectorate had recalled that the establishment was “committed to the pHARe system to fight once morest harassment”. According to the rectorate, the “mockery” reported by Lucas and his mother at the start of the school year had been “immediately taken seriously by the college teams”.
The death of the teenager had caused great emotion and triggered many reactions on social networks. “I am thinking of all students like him who are harassed: their despair is the basis of my determination to prevent all forms of harassment,” the Minister of Education said on Twitter. Pap Ndiaye. “No child should find suicide as the ultimate outcome,” he was moved.
“Lucas’ suicide is tragic”, also reacted on Twitter SOS Homophobia. “The fight once morest school bullying must be urgently strengthened. That an establishment approved by@education_gouv does not react to many reports is alarming”, had further estimated the LGBT + association.
The politicians moved
The death of the teenager had also provoked several political reactions. “Homophobia kills. Sadness and support for the family of Lucas, ”tweeted the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune.
“I am devastated by the death of #Lucas (…) This tragedy must be an opportunity for awareness. Homophobia kills, ”said the First Secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, on the same social network. “Immense sadness for Lucas (…) We have a duty to fight all forms of homophobia! “, had also tweeted the president of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti.
In October 2021, Dinah Gonthier, 14, committed suicide at her home in Kingersheim, in the Haut-Rhin, because according to her family, she was the victim of school harassment. After a first complaint dismissed by the Mulhouse prosecution, the family of the teenager filed a complaint with civil action last November.
