investigation, funeral, testimony… What we know

For his family, there is no doubt about it. If Lucas, 13, committed suicide, it was because he suffered greatly from school bullying and homophobia. An investigation is opened.

In Golbey, in the Vosges, the suicide of Lucas, 13, victim according to his relatives of homophobia and school harassment, arouses emotion. “There’s really a lot of emotion among the adults who haven’t seen anything, who haven’t seen that Lucas has been doing badly lately,” he told France Blue Valérie Dautreme, the academic director of the national education services. While an investigation was opened in order to shed light on this tragedy, the scope of which has become national, five days after the events – Lucas died on January 7, 2023 – a psychological cell was set up. on foot from Monday at Louis Armand College, an establishment in which the fourth-grade student was educated.

An investigation opened after the suicide of Lucas

An investigation, entrusted to the police station of Épinal, has been opened to establish whether the malicious acts, of which the young boy was the victim, are indeed the cause of the suicide. An autopsy has already been performed on the teenager at the Forensic Institute of Nancy. This confirmed that he had killed himself. As reported in particular BFM, Lucas’ family intends to file a complaint. “There is a whole series of chains of responsibility which can be sought and engaged if, in fact, the elements of an offense have been constituted”, explains Me Catherine Faivre, the family lawyer, of whom BFM is the l ‘echo.

Acts of harassment already denounced in the past

The public prosecutor, Frédéric Nahon, said in a press release that Lucas’ parents had denounced “acts of harassment committed by students at his college, because of his homosexuality, for several months”. The facts “had been reported to the National Education, which had received the minors” concerned, even added the prosecutor.

Elements confirmed by Valérie Dautreme, academic director of the national education services in the Vosges, who expressed her emotion to France Blue Lorraine. She tells our colleagues that she was alerted to the “mockery” linked to the teenager’s homosexuality, in September, during a parent-teacher meeting. “The situation was taken very seriously by the school, by the head teacher,” she said, adding that she believed “things had worked out.” “When there was the second parent-teacher meeting at the end of last year, the mother and Lucas said that things were going better and that Lucas was fine,” said Valérie Dautreme in The Parisian.

Strong reactions in the political class after the suicide of Lucas

Can the death of Lucas generate a start and an awareness at the height of the drama? This is apparently what the Minister of National Education wants to believe, who was moved by the suicide of the young boy, aged 13, who was subjected to acts of harassment in his college, in Golbey, in the Vosges, near Épinal. “All my thoughts are with Lucas. […] I think of all the students like him who are harassed: their despair is the basis of my determination to prevent all forms of harassment. No child should find suicide as the ultimate outcome”, he wrote on Twitter. Remember that Emmanuel Macron assured that the fight against school bullying was one of the priority causes of his five-year term.

A kitty to finance the funeral of Lucas

While the funeral of young Lucas is announced for Saturday January 14, 2023 in Épinal, an online kitty has been opened to raise funds to finance them. On Leetchi, we can thus read: “Today, we are setting up this kitty to support parents and family in this painful ordeal. Your donations will be used to have a funeral worthy of the love we have for Lucas. Thursday, at the end of the evening, a little more than 7,500 euros had been collected. For Lucas’ funeral, his parents invite those present to wear an LGBT sign in tribute to their son. As reported Morning Vosgesthe family also asked that the funeral take place “in calm and respect”.