“It is frightening that children tried to expose the alarm but were not heard”

Laelia Benoit is a child psychiatrist and researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Inserm and the Yale Child Study Center in the USA. Trained in sociology, it is interested in the influence of social dynamics in the mental health of children. She is the author of the book Infantism (“Infantilization”) that examines prejudices and discrimination against children.

In your view,

In addition to the individual responsibility of the adults concerned, which are subject to judicial evaluation, this tragedy and the silence that surrounded it shows structural mechanisms that are still very present in our society.

Until reporting on the media about unprecedented cruelty, it was a source of pride for many families to send their children to boarding school in Notre-Dame-de-Béharram. They saw it as a guarantee that their children “kept in line”, forced to obey and to be exposed to the principles of “good education”. The fact that the students were punished regardless of the reason made no concern. Your submission was considered necessary for your training. It was known, tolerated and sometimes even wanted. This culture of submission made it possible to thrive in ever extreme forms.

In the certificates that the spokesman for the victim, Alain Esquerre, [author of Le Silence de Bétharram, “The Silence of Bétharram”]It is terrifying to see that the children tried to expose the alarm. They searched for adults to trust what they experienced, but they were not heard. Even worse, for some, the fault of the violence was again inflicted on them and had doubts about their own responsibility: Didn't you “deserve” what happened to you?

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