After years of torment at school that led him to a violent suicide attempt, Jonathan Destin had made the fight against bullying his life’s mission. At the age of 27, he died at his mother’s house, in his sleep.
An emblematic figure in the fight against school bullying, Jonathan Destin, originally from Marquette-Lez-Lille in Hauts-de-France and aged 27, died on Saturday August 20.as announced by his mother Marie-Pierre on FaceBook two days later, on Monday August 22, 2022.
Harassed in several establishments, for several years
Left at the age of 27, in still undefined circumstances, Jonathan Destin lived a terrible childhood and adolescence, the object of perpetual bullying at school, in college, and in two vocational high schools, namely from CM2 until he was 16, so : ” For six years, they harassed me. They beat me, they extorted me, they told me they would kill my parents “he testified to the Voice of the North. Unbearable school harassment, which led him on February 8, 2011 to set himself on fire, before flowing into the Deûle. Narrowly saved, Jonathan will not come out unscathed from his suicide attempt: 72% burnt, he will therefore undergo 23 operations, two and a half months of coma, three years of hospitalization and incessantly painful sequelae according to the regional daily.
Primary mission in the fight against school bullying: free speech
But miraculously alive, Jonathan had then taken on a mission: free speech and fight against school bullying, in any form. After numerous testimonies in the media and the writing of a book, doomed to kill me (XO editions, 2013), his story was also adapted on the small screen in the TV movie “The day I burned my heart“, with Michael Youn and Camille Chamoux. His voice, his message, had taken him to collaborate with celebrities like Nicolas Sirkis in 2019, during a major awareness campaign in schools. The singer of the group Indochine has also testified in a few words on Twitter his pain and his eternal friendship for the young man.
If at the time, Jonathan, overwhelmed by fear and shame, had not spoken for six years about his ordeal, the young man had been determined since his release from the hospital to release the words of the victims.. From middle school to high school, Jonathan never ceased to hammer home the first line of defense to adopt in the event of harassment: “You have to talk about it. Do not be silent in any case. To a person you trust. And if necessary, notify the police because harassment is punishable by law. “he said when the TV movie was released in 2018, repeating it the following year during an awareness mission: ” freeing up speech is the first thing to do. It’s the gesture that saves. Then, saying what the stalkers risk at the criminal level is also very good because children often think it’s just a game. I want things to change. Harassment, to stop it, you have to talk about it. “
Fight against school bullying: what will the Minister of Education Pap NDiaye do?
In full overhaul of the school with his inclusive school project, the Minister of Education Pap NDiaye spoke extensively about the five main areas he intends to develop during his mandate, without however including the fight against school bullying. .
On the occasion of a conference at Sciences Po last July, the minister had tersely replied to a student who questioned him on this subject that he will try to improve this chapter during his mandate, reported France Blue. Next Friday, August 26, its back-to-school press conference will take place. There is no doubt that the Minister will be questioned on this subject, less than a week before the start of the 2022-2023 school year.