2023-06-23 07:33:00
This Friday, the editorial guest at 7:50 a.m. was Zara Chiarolini, mother of Maëlle, who committed suicide on January 31, 2020 in Jumet at the age of 14. She is vice-president of the association “Les mots de Tom” which fights against school bullying and provides support to families. She answered questions from Christophe Deborsu remotely. Bullying prevention initiatives exist but are specific to one school or another. And Maëlle’s mother regrets that parents still feel helpless today in the face of this kind of harassment. They don’t know where to turn.
You are a French teacher at Jumet. Your life is shattered on January 31, 2020. Your daughter Maëlle, 14, commits suicide. A video showing her naked circulated on the internet at the time. What is going on ?
“In fact, Maëlle was the victim of what is called porn disclosure. Her boyfriend at the time of the break-up broadcast a video which had been exchanged in the private sphere. He therefore made it public. And he Obviously cyberbullying followed. It happened very quickly because after the broadcast, my daughter ended her life two months later. So she was quickly plunged into shame, disarray and guilt”.
Cyberbullying, that means she got a lot of comments, that everyone saw that video. It’s quite unbearable for a young girl. Is that the big problem?
“You get the impression when you take the bus, when you go to school that everyone has seen this video and so it becomes unmanageable and untenable for the young person who is the target. And the young person tends to no longer finding a way out, a solution. And therefore, the only solution to get out of this suffering that my daughter has found is to end her life”.
She tells you about what is happening at that time or you do not see anything?
“No, it was still very fast. Maëlle ended her life 2 months later. So, I didn’t really have time to see anything. There were of course small signs A little more aggressive. Of course teenagers are always in their room, but this is generally attributed to the teenage crisis. But I had absolutely no idea that there was all this happening without his knowledge and mostly unbeknownst to me.”
The messages that you were able to discover afterwards on social networks, it was really appalling…
“Yes, after that it’s obviously the cold shower. Already I discovered the day of my daughter’s suicide that there was this video which had circulated. I discovered that she had been targeted by harassment within of his school by young people who had seen the video. Mockery, insults and humiliation. And with the multiplicity of broadcasts on social networks, it was a wave. So it was very difficult because cyberbullying leaves absolutely no respite. It’s day and night. Even the refuge of his room was no longer there”.
A word on the sentence that the four young people prosecuted by the Charleroi juvenile court received. Three of those responsible, all minors, were sentenced to educational terms and the last received a reprimand from the court. Can you live with this?
“It’s very difficult. Court hearings are a terrible ordeal. It does not repair, it does not console, but it shows in any case that our system does not accept this kind of act. And so there the message is still strong. Yes, we incur risks, penalties if we broadcast this type of content on social networks.
Education Minister Caroline Désir has developed an anti-harassment plan to help young people and their families. 200 schools will be coached each year. There are 2,500 schools in Wallonia and Brussels, so this is obviously a very partial plan. For you, prevention is good but it is not enough because, when harassment is detected, there is not much help. That’s really your message this morning.
“I really welcome this harassment plan which has the merit of existing. It is really an ambitious project, which precisely allows there to be this framework which will be generalizable to all schools, and that we needed it Prevention makes it possible in the maximum cases to reduce 20% of situations of harassment and therefore prevention is not enough.With this plan, we will lead to a liberation of speech, young people will be able to find these famous referents to whom to turn. But the question is then: what do we do with this freedom of speech? How can we support the young person, his family and get him out of this situation? And there, I think that there is a failure to that level.”
For any questions about suicide, never hesitate to contact the suicide prevention center free of charge on 0800 32 123.
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