Three weeks ago in Golbey, a village in eastern France, Lucas he kills himself because he can no longer handle the teasing, threats and insults he has been subjected to since the beginning of the school year. He hangs himself because due to his homosexuality he has become the predestined victim: they won’t let him live anymore.
In France, one million students – out of a school population of 12 million – experience bullying from their peers. In each class, at least three, four, end up in the crosshairs of daily, physical and online torment.
Faced with so much violence, the Assemblée Nationale, the French Parliament, defined the school bullying as a crime, punishable by a sentence ranging from a 150 thousand euro fine up to 10 years in prison. It is on the basis of this law that four thirteen year olds, two boys and two girls, schoolmates of Lucas, were stopped and charged. Because their constant harassment led to the boy’s suicide.
In Epinal, among the gray and silent streets of the Vosges, speak Séverine, Lucas’ mother – who doesn’t want revenge, but justice: “I can’t imagine any pain for a 13-year-old boy, but I want this to make him think, not to start over, to do something, to move forward…” In tears , Séverine asks the school to take responsibility: “It’s not just the four of them, there are also other people responsible – but this will be decided by justice, I just want my son to rest in peace, I would like us to be left in peace. .. and that justice be done. For him”.
