The family of Lindsay, the schoolgirl who committed suicide after being the victim of school harassment, organized a rally this Sunday in Vendin-le-Vieil.
By Lise Lacombe for Le Point
© DENIS CHARLET / AFP
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” NOTur fight against bullying at school begins. This is how the mother of the teenager opened the white march organized on Sunday in the town of Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais) in tribute to her daughter. Lindsay, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, committed suicide last May, victim of school bullying.
Sunday morning, at 10 a.m., her family and loved ones symbolically set off, dressed in white, to the high school in the city where the young teenager was educated. Several hundred people gathered.
READ ALSOFrom school bullying to suicide, Lindsay’s descent into hell “This white march is organized in tribute to Lindsay, but it is more than a tribute that we want to pay him: it is an entire nation which vibrates in unison to shout its anger and its sadness and to proclaim loud and clear : “Never again !” “said his mother, Betty Gervois. “To all the children who are suffering, who day after day are bullied, we want to tell them that they are not alone,” she added. She also protested against “the impunity of social networks – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok -, which cannot continue to earn money on hateful and insulting remarks”. This speech ended with an observation, that “an awareness has begun […] to the government. It is a breath of hope. »
Moved, she called for “the impunity of social networks to end”, believing that “they cannot continue to contribute to the proliferation of hatred”. Calling for a national mobilization, she challenged the government: “This is a fight that must be supported by the state. »
A national prevention campaign
Established as a national priority after the suicide in May of Lindsay, 13, school harassment will be the subject of a major national prevention campaign at the start of the school year, Pap Ndiaye promised earlier this week.
After having received the parents of the teenager last week, the minister had asked that “an hour of awareness” be organized this week in all college classes in France.
Lindsay’s mother and stepfather have, for their part, announced that they have filed a complaint, in particular against the college. They want to believe that the “outpouring of solidarity” that emerged after the death of their daughter will lead to “radical change”.