Was 13-year-old Lucas driven to suicide by being harassed? The juvenile court of Épinal ruled on Monday, judging guilty of harassment the four schoolchildren of Golbey (Vosges). The teenagers, however, were not convicted of young Lucas' suicide.
These four students from Golbey College, an establishment near Épinal where Lucas was also educated, had appeared behind closed doors on April 3 for alleged facts of "school bullying" between September 2022 and January 2023 that "resulted in the suicide" of their classmate.
To everyone's surprise, the prosecutor's office, although at the origin of these proceedings, had proposed during this hearing a new reading of the file, certainly retaining against them facts of harassment, but now without causal link with suicide, contrary to what Lucas' relatives maintain. "In view of the analysis of the file and what was said at the hearing, there remained a doubt about the causality" between the harassment and the desperate gesture of Lucas, had then indicated the prosecutor of Épinal, Frédéric Nahon.
VIDEO. Lucas' suicide: "I have to blame them, they were mean to him"
Lucas, 13, committed suicide on January 7, after writing a note expressing his desire to end his life. His relatives had denounced acts of harassment, revealing the mockery and homophobic insults of which the teenager had said he was victim from students of his college.
This tragedy had aroused a wave of emotion and provoked several political reactions. "When a child ends his life, there are no words to express grief, pain," said the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, visibly moved. "This tragedy shows how the fight against bullying must remain a priority for the government." A few days ago, four minors were indicted for "school bullying leading to suicide" after a 13-year-old girl, Lindsay, killed herself on May 12 in Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais).