From a box placed on the living room table, she takes out small T-shirts and puts them to her face. “They still smell a little Lucas. » Séverine Vermard moved shortly after his death. She kept seeing the images of her 13-year-old son, hanged, lying on the ground by the Samu. But she kept her clothes and all the portraits that do justice to her sweet smile, to her sunny personality. They populate the living room library. Séverine's childhood rhymed with the violence of an alcoholic mother and placement in a home. So when she started her own family, she wanted just the opposite.
Her eldest, Damien*, was born when she was 20, and Lucas, two years later. He was barely six months old when his father left. But Séverine did not flinch. For a time, she even stopped working to take care of her boys. Her priority: to be a present and protective mother. Despite the difficulty of everyday life, she remembers the happiness she had seeing Lucas grow up, his exuberance and his infectious joy. “I often found him putting on makeup, imitating me. He stole my clothes, did fashion shows. He dreamed of being a celebrity stylist and makeup artist. »
Séverine Vermard with her son's belongings, at her home in Épinal, on December 16. On the wall, a portrait of Lucas.
Paris Match / © Ilan Deutsch
“You will love whoever you want. And if we hurt you, mom will intervene. »
His son's homosexuality quickly seemed obvious to him. “When he played, he often said: “I’m going to marry my darling.” » Then, at 12 years old, Lucas confided in her, upset, in the bathroom. “Can you turn off the light, mom? I'm afraid you won't love me anymore. » She then asked him if he had done something stupid. “I don’t know if it’s stupid… I don’t like girls. I want a lover. » Without hesitation, Séverine turned the light back on and looked him straight in the eyes: “You will love whoever you want. And if we hurt you, mom will intervene. » For two years, she has tortured herself by remaking the film from the year which preceded her suicide. “What if I had done differently? What if I hadn't moved? What if I had banged my fist on the table in college? »
The harassment began when the family left Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and settled in Golbey to bring Mathieu*, Séverine's companion, closer to his workplace. In January 2022, Lucas joined Louis-Armand College, and his life changed. “Very quickly, he was mocked for his style of dress, his way of speaking, his attendance in class, his homosexuality,” says Séverine. He was also called a “dirty bastard” because he didn't have a pair of Nikes, but black Converse with the back of the pink sole. » On the Internet, she shows us an image of this shoe, the pale pink edging so thin on the white sole. “So much nastiness for that…”
Lucas, aged 8, at Sainte-Marie park, in Nancy, in 2017.
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“Work well mom, I love you.” These are Lucas's last words to his mother
She cites the repeated insults endured by her son: “big faggot”, “dirty faggot”. And these comrades who refused to sit next to the “faggot”. She wanted to intervene with the establishment but Lucas opposed it, for fear that it would worsen the situation, and took refuge in silence. “During the school holidays, he was doing very well. He was in his family cocoon, accepted with his grain of madness. But as soon as he returned to school, he changed. He was more aggressive, spoke a lot less. I thought it was a teenage crisis. We don't necessarily see the discomfort. Today, I'm reanalyzing things by putting everything end to end. » Lucas no longer confided, yet the harassment continued, destroying him. Séverine blurts out: “I blame myself. » Against her son's advice, she met her homeroom teacher. “He wrote to the teaching team, but in other classes, the teachers did not intervene to protect Lucas. »
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At the start of the school year in September 2022, the ordeal begins again. Séverine alerts the CPE, who assures her that she has summoned the four children mentioned by Lucas. Months later, after the tragedy, she learned that the parents of only one teenager had been notified. No action was taken by the establishment. She can make more calls to the college, seek help from a social worker, nothing changes. During the 2022 Christmas holidays, his child becomes a happy boy again but, from the start of the school year, he quickly gets darker again. “On Friday January 6, 2023, he came home late. I decided to punish him: he wouldn't go to his hip-hop class the next day. » On the morning of January 7, Lucas seemed in normal condition, showing no alarming signs. As Séverine leaves the house, he says: “Work well, mom, I love you. » These were his last words to his mother.
Lucas with his mother, pregnant with his little sister, to whom he had written this note: “I love you with all my heart. You are the most beautiful in the whole world! »
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It was the youngest, 4 years old, who found her brother hanged
At 11:30 a.m., Mathieu tries to call Séverine before sending her an SMS: “Answer, urgent! Lucas made an attempt. » She remembers, her face bathed in tears: “I called him back immediately. I started screaming. My boss took me home. There were firefighters, police officers. I was forbidden to enter the room, I was only allowed to walk down the corridor and I saw his body lying on the ground. » She doesn't remember much of what followed. “I have big black holes. I was told that I had lost my temper and kicked people. I told them they were liars. » She catches her breath. “I blame Lucas. He didn't speak to me, he abandoned me. And at the same time, it takes a lot of courage and a certain determination. »
She affirms it: if she had not had other children, she would not have held on. But we had to support Anne*, his youngest. It was she who, at 4 years old, found her brother hanging from the bars of the bunk bed “with his best friend’s scarf”. “She is followed by a psychologist at least once a month. She was traumatized. When we were cold in winter and our lips turned purple, she would be alarmed: “Are you going to leave like Lucas?” She just turned 6, she's a warrior, a fighter. Now she sees her brother everywhere: a pretty flower is him, a star is him. »
For Damien, the eldest, 17 years old, the tragedy seems insurmountable. “It destroyed him. He doesn't want to see a psychologist, has stopped school and doesn't work. He is angry against justice, against Lucas' college. I'm trying to get him out of his depression. It's difficult. » For two years, the family has not only endured this impossible mourning. We had to endure the comments of the principal of the establishment, who described the insults poured out on Lucas, and those of the CPE, as “mere bickering”. “The Monday following her suicide, she called me a liar, saying that I had never reported the harassment my son was experiencing,” says Séverine. Her life as a couple was also turned upside down: her relationship with her partner did not survive. And then there was a new challenge to face. That of the two trials.
“I don’t blame the accused. They are children. I blame the institution, the justice system, the parents,” says Séverine
At first instance, on June 5, 2023, the Epinal children's court found four adolescents guilty of harassment against Lucas, without finding causality with his suicide. On appeal in Nancy, on October 2, 2023, the defendants were acquitted. “I don’t blame the accused. They are children. I blame the institution, the justice system, their parents. They reproduce what they have learned. But they remain children who can still be re-educated with respect and acceptance from all, hopes Séverine. During the hearing, it was very difficult. The young people laughed. They seemed completely disconnected from reality. »
Not a word of regret was uttered. “They contested any form of harassment. Only one admitted to the mockery, specifies Catherine Faivre, Séverine's lawyer, who became her friend. There was no educational approach. We also regret that the public prosecutor did not choose to open a judicial investigation. We would have liked all teachers, students and supervisory staff to be heard. »
Thanks to his efforts, an administrative investigation was launched. Conclusion: Lucas was indeed the victim of harassment
Me Faivre filed a request for a cassation appeal in the hope that a new trial will take place. Until December 2024, this possibility seemed remote. But the conclusions of the administrative investigation carried out in Lucas' college could change the situation. Séverine fought for it to take place. “I had to push myself. February 29[2024]with a friend and my children, I even went to France Travail in Épinal, where the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, was visiting. I was ready to do anything, even if it meant getting on the ground, blocking his way. » This meeting will allow her to be heard. In May, the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, received Séverine and assured her that the administrative investigation had been launched.
Lucas' mother is quickly interviewed. Six months later, on December 9, 2024, the rector of the Nancy-Metz academy received her in person to deliver the conclusions: “Lucas was indeed the victim of harassment within the Louis-Armand de Golbey college. » A first victory for this woman who intends to continue fighting. For Lucas, and to break the silence on an illness that affects thousands of children in France. Every day, she sends a message to her missing son's Snapchat account. “After seeing the rector, I was tempted to call him. It's stupid, I know. I wrote to him on Snapchat to tell him the news. I felt chills from head to toe. It's my way of telling myself that he's there. Forever. »
* First names have been changed.
More information on the Lunah association: lunah.fr
“Lucas. Symbol in spite of itself.”, by Séverine Vermard, ed. Harper Collins, 18.90 euros, 160 pages. Released January 8.
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