Received at the Ministry of National Education by Pap Ndiaye, the family of Lindsay, 13, who committed suicide in May after being the victim of school harassment, questioned the minister accused of not being “sincere” and helpless in the fight against this phenomenon.
“It seems insufficient to me”, “there are things that have been said but not taken seriously”, reacted to the press Betty, Lindsay’s mother, after an hour’s interview.
The mother even went further by evoking the minister: “I did not find him sincere. I am waiting for things to move, I am waiting to see action,” she said, visibly moved.
“We were not helped in time, neither before, nor during, nor after”, she added, saying to herself “lost”, “alone” and “not helped”.
Pap Ndiaye, who declared last week that the teenager’s suicide was “a collective failure”, had invited Lindsay’s family to come and meet him on Monday afternoon in his ministry, in order to discuss with them after the suicide of the teenager, on May 12, in the north of France, a drama with strong media repercussions.
“The Minister (Pap Ndiaye) wanted first of all by this meeting to give all his support and express his emotion to the family of Lindsay in the face of this tragedy”, specified the rue de Grenelle in a press release.
But at the end of the meeting, the family’s speech turned into an indictment against the minister and his anti-harassment policy.
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”.
“No concrete measures, no financial means allocated to this cause which nevertheless requires a national debate”. “We don’t have the feeling it’s going to evolve,” he said.
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.
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.
The role of social networks was again denounced Monday by Lindsay’s family.
The family lawyer considered “frightening, the admission of powerlessness of the minister (Pap Ndiaye) himself, of the French state vis-à-vis social networks”. “He (Pap Ndiaye) 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.
“This admission of powerlessness, it is staggering, unacceptable”, lambasted Me Debuisson.
Last week, Mr. Ndiaye acknowledged that social networks “have their share of responsibility”. It is even necessary, according to him, “to put them under pressure in a more accentuated way”.
“With other ministries, we will consult and act extremely firmly on social networks because, beyond what they can say, we know that their reaction is too slow and certainly not up to par. of what we expect from them”, hammered the minister on Thursday.
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”.
In a statement, he said Tuesday to bring together all the rectors to “mobilize” them again against the “scourge” of harassment.
05/06/2023 18:51:15 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
