The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, promised Tuesday, June 6 "additional means" in the fight against school bullying, with in particular the creation of a referent on this subject "in each establishment", after having received Monday the family of young Lindsay, who committed suicide on May 12. Brigitte Macron announced her intention to receive the family at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday, according to information from the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) confirmed by the lawyer for her relatives.
For her part, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne assured that she wanted to "make the fight against harassment the top priority for the start of the 2023 school year", Tuesday at the National Assembly. “Bullying is a scourge that undermines the daily lives of thousands of young people and too often causes drama, distress, depression and sometimes even suicide. Lindsay's passing is a terrible example of that and I want to say here all my solidarity and support to her family and friends,” she said during government questions.
The Head of Government also announced that she had "asked the Ministers of the Interior, Justice and Digital Affairs to support the Minister of National Education in order to be more effective in the prevention and sanctions against harassment, in particular on social media." "Yes, bullying can kill and it's intolerable" and "our schools, our colleges, our high schools must be places of knowledge and openness against ignorance and prejudice, places where everyone is protected," said insisted the Prime Minister, who was questioned by the president of the Renaissance presidential group, Aurore Bergé.
Awareness
"We must step up on this issue, we must accelerate what we have already started to do", Pap Ndiaye explained a little earlier on "Franceinfo". “There has been a realization for several years. We have developed a device, the Phare device, which we generalized at the start of the school year in all schools and all colleges ”, after a two-year experimental phase in six academies, he added. This system provides in particular for the training of a reference team of at least five people per middle school and must be extended to high schools from the start of the next school year.
"But obviously, it does not work as it should in all establishments," acknowledged the minister, stressing that the ministry was going to "put additional resources on this issue, first with a harassment referent in each establishment. , who will be attached to the head of the establishment". “There will be financial means for that,” he assured.
Pap Ndiaye also announced that the ministry would "put additional resources on 3020 and 3018", the two emergency help numbers for families and victims (3020) and on cyberbullying (3018), without more than details. He also said he "enjoined the heads of establishments to systematically contact, in the event of proven harassment, with the public prosecutor, with the judicial authorities".
"Insufficient" response
Received by the Minister on Monday, Lindsay's family implicated the Minister, accusing them of not being "sincere" and of having given them an "insufficient" response. "There are things that have been said but not taken seriously," Betty, Lindsay's mother, reacted to the press after an hour-long interview. The family's lawyer, Me Pierre Debuisson, explained that he had "the feeling that the awareness is real but that it is not very deep, very serious. It may remain on the surface."
Three complaints have been filed against the management of the college, the Lille academy and the police officers in charge of the investigation for "non-assistance to anyone in danger", detailed Thursday Me Debuisson during a press conference in Vendin- le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais), where the schoolgirl was educated.
Social networks implicated
A fourth complaint targets the social network Facebook "completely failing" in terms of content moderation and the fight against "hate speech", according to the lawyer, denouncing the continued harassment against Lindsay, in particular on Instagram.
Last week, Mr. Ndiaye acknowledged that social networks "have their share of responsibility". It is even necessary, according to him, to "put them under more accentuated pressure".
The family lawyer considered "frightening, the admission of powerlessness of the minister himself, of the French state vis-à-vis social networks". "He explained to us in black and white that France was totally incapable of curbing this outburst of hatred and violence on social networks, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Tiktok", denounced Me Debuisson.
Mr. Ndiaye had also promised to "invite the main managers of social networks to exchange, in particular the Meta France group (Facebook, Instagram), SnapChat, TikTok and Twitter, in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas sea, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry in charge of the Digital Transition and Telecommunications".
