Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP 17:47 p.m., October 22, 2023

Lindsay, a 13-year-old girl who was bullied at school, took her own life last May. A white march in his honour took place this Sunday in Liévin in the Pas-de-Calais. About 200 people marched to the cemetery where the teenager is buried.

A white march in tribute to Lindsay, a 13-year-old girl who was bullied at school and committed suicide in May, took place on Sunday in Liévin in the Pas-de-Calais region, calling for better listening to the victims and punishing the perpetrators. Chanting "stop the bullying", "talk about it" and "educate our children", about 200 people marched to the cemetery where the teenager is buried.

They observed a minute's silence and released balloons for Lindsay and all the children and teenagers who were being bullied. Jean-Roger Ribaud, the academic director of the Pas-de-Calais National Education Department, who was present at the march, did not speak. "Today, there really needs to be a law and real sanctions, it can change things," said Lindsay's mother, Betty Gervois, while estimating that the file is "moving forward" with Education Minister Gabriel Attal.

Empathy courses from 2024

She said she receives messages every day from other children or teenagers who are being bullied, via the address of the association "Les ailes de Lindsay". "There is a new breath of fresh air that comes from politics, but which does not yet come from the schools, which we deplore, not all of them yet apply the pARE program" (for the prevention of bullying and cyberbullying), said the president of the association of the Souffre-douleurs de l'école, Michel Bucamp.

>>

READ ALSO - Pascal Praud and you - 'Her body is scarified everywhere': a mother tells of her daughter's bullying at school

After Lindsay's death, the government promised additional resources to combat harassment. At the end of September, he presented a plan that includes empathy classes from 2024, enhanced training for law enforcement officers and magistrates, confiscation of phones for perpetrators of serious cyberbullying and the possibility of excluding student bullies from social networks. In Lindsay's case, four minors were charged with "bullying at school leading to suicide". An adult has been charged with "death threats".

An administrative investigation has also been opened by the Ministry of Education. The family, who said they had received "no support" during Lindsay's harassment, filed a complaint against the school, the rectorate, police officers, and Facebook. The rectorate filed a complaint for insults and threats against the staff of Lindsay College.