Lucas suicide: Bayrou calls for action by “advertisers, media and social networks” against bullying

“Bullying is one of the most disgusting things.” After the Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, and the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel, the high commissioner for planning, François Bayrou, affirmed, on Sunday on the set of BFM Politique, the urgency of fighting against bullying, a week after Lucas’s suicide. .

“Bullying is one of the most disgusting things you can find,” denounces the mayor of Pau.

For the president of the MoDem, “we can only fight through perpetual alertness and moral education”, which must go through the school, the family but also the social networks. The former Minister of National Education suggested the promotion of a large-scale “public action”, involving “advertisers, the media and social networks”, to better convey the message.

“Loneliness has never been so important”

Lucas, a 13-year-old teenager, committed suicide on Saturday, January 7, at his home in Golbey (Vosges). His parents say that he was bullied because of his homosexuality. He had expressed his desire to end his life in his diary without, however, referring to the harassment. An administrative investigation will have to verify this direct causal link.

“We are a society with countless social networks, where everyone seems to be connected to everyone, and really, solitude has probably never been more important,” he said.

A loneliness that, according to him, is found “in all moments of life.” “We have launched in Pau (the city of which he has been mayor since 2014, editor’s note) a plan against loneliness for five years now where we strive to pick up people from their homes,” he recalled, adding that “the loneliness of the playground is the same loneliness.”

“There are many colleagues who had seen, perhaps many colleagues who had participated. Who explained to these children that when you see, you have to say?” François Bayrou questioned Lucas’s suicide.

“In these dramas, whatever the era, we always come across the same comments: We thought he or she was better,” he said.

The civil funeral of young Lucas also took place this Saturday at 5:00 p.m. at the Épinal funeral home. The family’s wish that people carry an LGBT sign has been respected. A white march in tribute to the young man is scheduled for the end of the month, probably the last weekend of January.