A bereaved mother believes that the Coroner’s report on the suicide of her 13 -year -old daughter could have been more severe due to the many distress signals that have been poorly assessed by various system stakeholders.
“I love you mom, see you tomorrow”.
These are the last words that Véronique Giroux-Quenel, 42, heard her daughter pronouncing. It was the day before his suicide.
“Since then, my life has no more meaning”, let go ofme Giroux before melting in tears on the phone.
No recommendation
On November 13, 2023, Jade Giroux-Poisson, 13, threw himself from a window of the Private College Marcellin-Champagnat, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
The coroner report was made public last June. The coroner there is no recommendation.
However, the system has failed at several times to assess Jade’s distress and react correctly, believes Mme Giroux.
For example, the teenager had ceased to take her medication for her hyperactivity disorder with impulsiveness and no longer wanted to receive “help from anyone”, we can read in the report.
“I don’t want to blame anyone, but there were enough signs for her to be hospitalized […] that it is taken care of ”, estimates Mme Giroux.
However, the system refused to grant him the requested child psychiatry consultation, she deplores.
A month before taking action, mme Giroux was so worried about Jade’s state that she had alerted the CLSC where she was followed, she says.
The speaker then preferred to wait for Jade to call her voluntarily, when the girl had not yet reached age to consent alone to care, 14 years.
In its assessment of the file, the CISSS of Montérégie-Center had also recommended that all youth stakeholders receive training on this element, as mentioned in the Coroner report.
Mme Giroux was particularly shocked by reading in the report that in several times this fall, the window of one of the college toilets had been found open, while his daughter had often asked questions about the possibility of opening it.
On October 4, Jade had also entrusted a speaker from the school his idea of ”jumping from a high place”, we can read in the report.
Both in schools and in the CLSC, “the speakers must be better trained”, which is not underlined enough in the report, insists Mme Giroux.
Jade at the age of 10.
Courtesy
Intimidation
Jade’s childhood was marked by a succession of tests: intimidation in the primary for which the school has acted, difficult break from parents, death threats of a boy in love with her in 6e year, which led to a post-traumatic shock, explains Mme Giroux.
To this came to be added a sexual assault by a peer, identified as “disturbing situation” in the report, only two months before suicide.
“I just wanted to be loved a little,” Jade on Tiktok published during the summer preceding his death.
To survive this drama, Mme Giroux found comfort with the Facebook group “bereaved by suicide in Quebec”.
This motivates her to continue: to raise awareness and send a message so that everything is done so that Jade’s story cannot happen again.
When publishing, the Marcellin-Champagnat college had not responded to the email of Journal.
For its part, the Coroner’s office abstained from comments, but wanted to repeat its condolences to the family.
