Lindsay's suicide: the family demands accountability from the rectorate and Facebook

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP 13:40 pm, June 01, 2023

"If everyone had done their job to protect Lindsay, she would be alive": the family of the teenager who killed herself at 13 years after being a victim of school bullying, announced Thursday that they had filed a complaint against the rectorate and Facebook. Three complaints were filed against the management of the college, the academy of Lille and the police officers in charge of the investigation for "non-assistance to person in danger", detailed the lawyer of the family, Me Pierre Debuisson, at a press conference in Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais), where the schoolgirl, who committed suicide on May 12, was schooled. A fourth targets the social network Facebook "completely failing" according to the lawyer.

Four minors were indicted in this case for "school harassment leading to suicide", as part of a judicial investigation, announced on May 25 the prosecutor of Bethune. An adult has been indicted for "death threats". All were placed under judicial control. "If everyone had done their job to protect Lindsay, she would be alive today," Debuisson said.

"We denounce this inertia of the public authorities who seem to give a damn about the fact that a 13-year-old girl hanged herself and that parents who alerted for months found themselves completely abandoned," he added.

"Completely let go"

"I tried everything, I did everything, we weren't helped, we were dropped, completely, no support, not before, not during, not after," said his mother Betty. "If we had been helped, if we had been supported, I'm sure my daughter would be with us." Contacted by AFP, the rectorate of the academy of Lille did not wish to comment on this complaint against him.

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He had announced last week the opening of an administrative investigation, conceding that the school services could have "gone further in the follow-up" of the girl, whose harassment was known to the establishment. The teenager, schooled in 4th grade at Bracke-Desrousseau College in Vendin-le-Vieil, committed suicide on May 12 in the evening at her home, according to the rectorate.

"The mother was received, Lindsay was received by the nurse, by the CPE (principal education advisor), by the principal" after the report of harassment, had pleaded on May 26 Jean-Roger Ribaud, academic director in the Pas-de-Calais, at a press conference.

Protocol "insufficient"

"We triggered the protocol, it gave a disciplinary council, this disciplinary council made it possible to exclude one of the main perpetrators of what happened," he added. "But it unfortunately proved insufficient." A support cell has been set up since May 15 in the college and a white march was organized on May 24 in memory of the girl.

"All my thoughts are with Lindsay and her family as despicable attacks continue on social media," National Education Minister Pap Ndiaye tweeted Wednesday. "Bullying has no place in school."

A system for the prevention of bullying, the pHARe program, tested since 2019 in elementary schools and colleges of six academies, is due to complete its generalization this year. According to the ministry, 91% of colleges and 64% of schools are already enrolled in this program, in addition to other anti-bullying measures, such as the emergency numbers 3020 (for families and victims), and 3018 (cyberbullying).