The family of young Nicolas, aged 15, is in the middle of a nightmare. Tuesday September 5, 2023, the teenager committed suicide at his home in Poissy, in the Yvelines department. His relatives said that he had been harassed for a long time by two comrades. He was a third year student in vocational preparation at the Adrienne-Bolland high school in Poissy. The young man’s parents were aware of their son’s ordeal and had alerted the principal of the establishment, threatening him with legal action if he did nothing. In response to their call for help, a letter was sent to them from the Versailles rectorate. She asked them “to adopt a constructive and respectful attitude”with a reminder of the risks incurred in the event of slanderous denunciation. They have since lost their son. Saturday September 23, 2023, Charline Avenel, the former rector of the Versailles academy, spoke in The Parisian for the first time since Nicolas’s suicide. She has no longer worked at the rectorate since July 2023, but she still ensured that the mail received by the boy’s parents “was written and signed by the human resources department of the rectorate”.
“Flaws in the procedure”
The former rector of the Versailles academy claims to have not been kept informed of the sending of this letter. But she clarified to our colleagues that it was systematically sent when the head of an establishment made a request for functional protection. As a result, the professor obtains legal assistance, covering legal fees. “A letter of disapproval is sent by the rectorate to parents who threaten a member of the teaching staff”she explained, before specifying that the letter should never have been sent to Nicolas’s loved ones. “I present, on my own behalf and on behalf of the institution that I directed, an apology to the parents. It is unacceptable that they received such a letter. […] When I discovered the existence of this letter a week ago in the press, I was devastated.”, she confided. Charline Avenel recognized that this incident highlighted “flaws in the procedure” and questioned “the human relationship with users”. She assured that an investigation was underway, in order to locate “the path of mail”. The former rector of the Versailles academy also asked to be heard by the inspectorate in order to “shedding light on the origin of these letters”.