Brigitte Macron will visit on Thursday the family of the teenager victim of harassment during the last school year who committed suicide on Tuesday in Poissy, announced government spokesperson Olivier Véran and the Elysée.

“When a 15-year-old child comes to the point of no longer considering any other solution than killing himself, it’s an emotion that compels us all,” Olivier Véran said on France Inter.

Brigitte Macron, a former teacher, has made the fight against school bullying and cyberbullying one of her battles.

The Élysée confirmed Thursday a “meeting with the family in Poissy” in the presence of the Minister of Education Gabriel Attal, refusing to give more details “to preserve a framework for exchange respecting the bereavement of the family”.

Justice has opened an investigation to find the causes of death, which occurred on Tuesday. “We must remain very careful at this stage,” the Versailles prosecutor’s office told AFP on Wednesday.

Tuesday evening, emergency services intervened in Poissy for a 15-year-old boy found hanging at his home.

Schooled in 3rd trade preparation at the Adrienne-Bolland vocational high school in Poissy, he had reported acts of harassment in December 2022. According to the story of Gabriel Attal on Wednesday, the parents had protested in the spring against insufficient consideration by the institution of their son’s situation. The latter had made his comeback this week in another establishment, in Paris.

Bullying at school, which affects one in ten pupils, has been made a top priority for the government for the 2023-2024 school year, after the suicide in the spring of young Lindsay, 13, in Pas-de- Calais.

Confirming that a “plan” will be detailed in September against harassment, Olivier Véran recalled that the measure providing that in the future it would be the students responsible for harassment who would have to change establishment was already in force.

As of this start of the school year, a referent on harassment “in each establishment” must be created, according to Gabriel Attal. Schools will also have to “systematically” report cases of harassment to prosecutors.

07/09/2023 17:00:32 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP