Her daughter has disappeared, but her harassment continues.
According to Betty Gervois, the mother of college student Lindsay, who committed suicide in May 2023 and was the victim of harassment, many Internet users continue to post malicious messages about her daughter after her death.
In an interview with Journal du Dimanche, she announced plans to attack, in parallel, several social media platforms, whose inaction she denounces in her daughter's case.
“The cyberbullying that drove my daughter Lindsay to suicide has never stopped and I am morally exhausted.
On social networks, anonymous accounts continue to insult Lindsay, sharing photos of her accompanied by unspeakable messages.
Their hatred targets my angel, but also his brothers,” she told the JDD.
“Some write that her brother is happier without her, others that no one misses her… I'm living a real nightmare.
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Harassment, according to Betty Gervois, also continues at school.
“Last Sunday, some of Lindsay's friends joined me at the cemetery and showed me photos of the bathroom walls at her school: insults were still written there.
I filed a complaint again on Thursday, but I noticed a helplessness which ended up making me despair,” explains the mother.
On May 12, Lindsay, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, committed suicide at her home in Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais).
According to those close to her, the teenager was the victim of harassment at school and on social networks.
She had also written a farewell letter to her family.
Lindsay's mother 'completely abandoned'
The affair caused a stir even in the ranks of the Ministry of National Education, where Pap Ndiaye, then minister, considered that Lindsay's death was “a collective failure”.
“It is a tragedy for his loved ones, for National Education and for the country, as with the suicide of any young person,” he reacted.
The government then promised more means to combat harassment, such as a plan which notably provides for empathy courses from 2024, reinforced training for law enforcement and magistrates, and the confiscation of phones for perpetrators. of serious cyberbullying and the possibility of excluding harassing students from social networks.
After the filing of several complaints, and the indictment of five people for "school harassment leading to suicide" or "death threats", Betty Gervois, Lindsay's mother, says she is "completely abandoned" today.
“I am still waiting for approval for my association, Les Ailes de Lindsay, and I have no news on the position of ambassador against harassment that I was told about this summer.
I have the impression that nothing moves, nothing changes and that no one can do anything.
Also abandoned by the courts: I have no date, no news, nothing,” she confided to the JDD.
Also read “I'm afraid Maïlys will do something stupid”: after the tragedies, how to put an end to cyberharassment?
Consequence: Lindsay’s mother wants to take “triple criminal, financial and media action”.
First by an “appeal to all families who suffer harassment”, then by filing a complaint, as a group, “for complicity in harassment and endangering the lives of others against those responsible for these social networks, in particular TikTok and Instagram, demanding compensation of 50,000 euros per family.”
“I know that we can succeed in making them comply because I receive hundreds of letters and emails from totally desperate families, who also feel helpless and abandoned.
So I know what my mission is from now on: to succeed in winning against these giants who allow the ordeal of our children,” thunders the angry mother.