Death of a high school student in the middle of the baccalaureate test: the father files a complaint against the school and the supervisors

Europe1 .fr with AFP 15:21 p.m., April 27, 2023

Nadir's father, a high school student with a heart condition who died in March during a baccalaureate exam in Lille, filed a complaint against the school and supervisors for "failure to assist a person in danger," he said Thursday, with his lawyer.

"Non-assistance to a person in danger"

The father, Tidjani Bekaddour-Benatia, "filed this complaint himself on April 8 at the central police station in Lille," said his lawyer, Farid Maachi, confirming information from the Voice of the North. He "asserted facts of non-assistance to person in danger", and "directed the complaint against the Gaston Berger school, and all the adults" who supervised the test, he said.

When Nadir, 19, "suffered a heart attack a minute or two after the subjects were distributed, the guards did not react properly," the lawyer said. According to several student witnesses, "he was left on the ground, without the supervisors seeming to react", for "about twenty minutes", "even though the school was aware of his fragility", a serious heart pathology, he detailed. Nadir was then transferred to Lille University Hospital where he died.

The stories of a "dozen students"

The lawyer said he had sent written testimonies to the Lille prosecutor's office, which opened after the death an investigation in "search for the causes of death". Education Minister Pap Ndiaye announced the opening of an administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate.

"I lost my son. I will never be able to get it back. But I expect justice to enlighten me on the real circumstances of his death," said Tidjani Bekaddour-Benatia. Citing the accounts of a "dozen students," he said Nadir first asked to leave the room, which was denied.

Then "he collapsed, agonized, the students screamed, wanted to help him, the supervisors told them 'no, you stay in your place,'" he said. "The adults remained frozen" even when a student warned that he was cardiac, and a supervisor would have "even stepped over him, continuing to distribute the leaves," he said.

"He was a valuable young man, cheerful, always positive, who loved challenges. He told me, 'Dad, I'm going to make you happy and proud,'" he said. After the death, the rectorate had assured that the emergency services had been contacted "directly" and the teenager "immediately placed in a lateral position of safety".