Four 13-year-olds are summoned to the Épinal juvenile court. They will be judged for school harassment having led to the suicide, because the investigation into the death of Lucas established that the harassment could have participated in the passage to the act.
[Mis à jour le 27 janvier 2023 à 20h44] There will indeed be a trial in the Lucas suicide case. The investigation led to the following conclusion: the harassment Lucas suffered at school may have contributed to his dramatic acting out. On January 7, Lucas committed suicide at his home in Golbey (Vosges). Since then, his parents claim that the young man, openly homosexual, was harassed and the victim of mockery and homophobia in his college Louis-Armand. At the end of the investigation, it was indicated, Friday, January 27, that four college students were summoned, on leaving their police custody, “before the children’s court of Épinal to be judged there for school harassment having resulted in the victim’s suicide.
The public prosecutor of Épinal, Frédéric Nahon, also announced the opening of an “incidental investigation against X for non-denunciation of ill-treatment of minors”, specifying that, as a result, “the investigations are continuing […] on this point”.
Who are the four college students implicated in Lucas’ suicide?
Little information on the identity of the four college students has leaked. The public prosecutor of Épinal, Frédéric Nahon, simply indicated that they are “two girls and two boys aged 13, educated in the same establishment as Lucas”. It seems to be, as pointed out The Parisian, of the four students to whom the management had asked, for almost two weeks, to stay at home, “for their safety”, according to a source close to the file who confided in the daily newspaper of the capital. The four teenagers were in the same class as Lucas, the 4th5.
What did they say during their auditions? “The defendants […] only admitted to having repeatedly made fun of their comrade”, declared Friday, the public prosecutor, who specified that “the facts took place from September 2022 to the beginning of January 2023”. And Frédéric Nahon therefore indicates that “at the end of their police custody, the four minors were summoned before the children’s court of Épinal to be tried there for school harassment which led to the suicide of the victim, the investigation having established that the harassment could have participated in the passage to the suicidal act of the young Lucas”.
Still presumed innocent at this stage, insisted the public prosecutor of Épinal, these four college students were so far “unknown to justice”. They “will be the subject of an evaluation by the judicial protection of youth before their judgment”, added Frédéric Nahon.
What measures had been taken against Lucas’ harassment?
Lucas and his family discussed the harassment that the young man had suffered “for several months” in college because of his homosexuality, according to the hearings of the relatives of the victim. The public prosecutor of Épinal clarified that the family had not filed a complaint, but that “the facts had been reported to the National Education, which had received the minors”. Elements confirmed by Valérie Dautreme, academic director of the national education services in the Vosges, who expressed her emotion to France Blue Lorraine. She told our colleagues that she had been 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.
For its part, the rectorate of the Grand Est region has indicated to France 3 that after the report of harassment, “the college teams showed great vigilance on a daily basis, while maintaining the link with the student and his family.” Since Lucas’ suicide on January 7, a psychological unit has been set up at Louis Armand College, the establishment in which the fourth-grade student was educated. The rectorate also recalled that “the establishment is committed to the pHARe system to fight against harassment, to raise awareness among all students and educational teams on this essential subject for the well-being of all”.
An investigation opened after the suicide of Lucas
A preliminary investigation, entrusted to the police station of Épinal, had therefore been opened by the city prosecutor’s office for “harassment of minors under the age of 15 and school harassment”, in order to establish whether the acts of harassment which were victim the young boy were indeed the cause of his suicide.
An autopsy was performed on the teenager at the Forensic Institute of Nancy. This confirmed that he had killed himself. As reported in mid-January BFMTV, the family of Lucas intended 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”, explained then Me Catherine Faivre, the family lawyer, whose chain of information echoed. The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, had also announced, Friday, January 13, that an administrative investigation had been opened in addition to this preliminary investigation.
On January 27, the public prosecutor of Épinal announced the opening of an “incidental investigation against X for non-denunciation of ill-treatment of minors”, specifying that “the investigations are continuing […] on this point “
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. “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.
All my thoughts go out to Lucas, a student at L. Armand College in Golbey, his family and his friends. 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 end up with suicide.
— Pap Ndiaye (@PapNdiaye) January 12, 2023
A kitty to finance the funeral of Lucas
An online kitty has been opened on Leetchi in order to raise funds to finance the funeral of Lucas, which was held on Saturday January 14 at the funeral home of Épinal. Now closed, this kitty has raised 7,554 euros. As the family wished, those present at the funeral wore an LGBT sign, according to information from BFM TV.