Teenager found dead in his high school in Reims: the hypothesis of harassment not proven “at this stage”

The avenue has not been ruled out, but it has not yet come to fruition. No harassment has been demonstrated “at this stage” in the investigation into the death of the 15-year-old teenager found Tuesday in the toilets of his high school, the causes of which remain unknown, the public prosecutor of Reims. “At this stage (…) no fact of harassment against him has been able to be demonstrated, contrary to what can be said very extensively on social networks and which is spreading among all students,” indicated prosecutor François Schneider at a press conference.

“There is currently no objective element to suggest that he wanted to make an attempt on his life, also contrary to what is being spread on social networks,” he added. But “the hypothesis is of course not excluded”.

According to his account, this young man enrolled in second grade at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste de La Salle high school, asked to go to the toilet around 6:45 p.m. Not seeing him return, the person in charge of the boarding school went to see him and heard him coughing and vomiting. She ended up opening the bathroom door and found him in cardio-respiratory arrest, according to the prosecutor.

“A young man without history”

The students were not heard, but the staff described, according to him, “a young man without incident who was calm and a good student” and “very well on April 9, before the tragedy”. “He may have been the subject of some sporadic mockery, which cannot be described as harassment. In any case, this is absolutely not what emerges from the investigation,” insisted François Schneider.

The autopsy Thursday morning did not make it possible to determine the causes of death, but ruled out external intervention, he detailed, saying he was waiting for blood and pathological tests. The prosecutor refused to comment on the “personal life” of the teenager, who “has no current link with his death”, alluding to possible discrimination linked to his sexual orientation reported by students.

The Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, demanded on Wednesday on X that “light” be shed “on this tragedy”. Louis Ban, president of the high school life council, in which the deceased young boy participated, also a volunteer in an associative radio station, described to AFP on Thursday a student who was very invested and committed to the high school. He did not notice any signs of suffering. “He was telling me about his personal projects, plans for high school,” he says.