Sadness and regret. The mother of young Lucas, who committed suicide in early January, spoke at a press conference on Monday at midday. Séverine is “sad, drained” but “holds on, for Lucas”, she specified this weekend with Vosges Matin. It was then his first speech since the suicide of his 13-year-old son, victim of harassment, in early January in Golbey, near Épinal in the Vosges. Mourning and until then very discreet, she thus came out of silence to affirm that “everything (had) not been done to save (her) son”. And to ensure that she wanted to get involved in the fight against school bullying.
“Put yourself in the place of the harassed”
“There is no question of throwing the authors out and I ask you to respect Lucas’s mother (…) she is going through an absolute tragedy, she needs to mourn her son with dignity”, warned the lawyer from the outset. of the family, Me Faivre, before the speech of Séverine, who held a press conference for “justice to be done” to her son, but also to call for awareness to fight against harassment and homophobia .
“I’m sorry because I couldn’t save him and no one could save him”, she was moved in front of the press on Monday, judging that “harassment” had been “the trigger of his son’s suicide. “We are not going to take it out on anyone, Lucas would not have wanted that”, she also reacted, before affirming not “to blame anyone” and simply to wait “for the work of Justice “.
But she still felt that the teaching staff “could have done more. There are things that have not been done, ”said Séverine, refusing to give the names of the children involved in the harassment. “Stop, put yourself in the place of the harassed”, asked the mother of the young Lucas in front of the press to the perpetrators of the bullying, calling on the harassed children to “talk about it”.
A white march on February 5
A white march will be organized on February 5 in memory of the boy. “It’s our way of keeping him alive (…) I don’t want anyone to forget him,” commented Séverine during the press conference on Monday noon.
The schoolboy hanged himself at home on January 7 and his parents claim that he was the victim of repeated bullying by some classmates, because of his homosexuality. An investigation was opened on January 12 by the Epinal prosecution to try to establish a link between these accusations of harassment and the suicide of the child.
Since then, the public prosecutor Frédéric Nahon has indicated that there will be a trial and that four comrades of Lucas will be tried for school harassment. “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”, detailed the prosecutor. A complaint against X was also filed for “failure to report mistreatment of minors”. A rather unusual case. “Investigations are continuing on this point,” said the prosecutor.