Simulation-clash against the exchange of photos daring

Photo Dominic Scali
Actors Melanie Beauvais (center), Isaac Felx (to the right of Melanie on the photo) and Felix Patenaude (standing left) have been recruited in secret to surprise their peers with an arrest and a trial is simulated. The spectators Roxanne Vincent, Maghalie Career-Dussault, Bianca Gauthier-Richer and Anthony Biron have been greatly impressed.

Dominique Scali

Sunday, February 4, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Sunday, February 4, 2018 01:00

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Approximately 200 students gathered in an auditorium. A police officer enters and pauses a teenager because it would have sent a friend a photo of the naked breasts of his ex-girlfriend. Nobody will doubt that it is a simulation.

“I was speechless. [The arrest], it was in our face. With people that we know, ” says Roxanne Vincent.

At this time, the young people from école secondaire Soulanges in the Montérégie, unaware that it is staged.

“It has really shaken. I think all those who attended, if you received a photo [hosea], we will immediately remove it, ” says Roxanne.

It all started at the beginning of last summer, when two lawyers from legal aid have contacted Jean-Sébastien Roy, assistant director of the school, located in Saint-Polycarpe, a small town in the corner of Vaudreuil.

The idea was to act in order to inform young people about the issue of sexy images that are transmitted to students, sometimes without their consent, the lawyers seeing more cases before the courts (see another text).

Recruited in secret

The direction and dramatic art teacher were, therefore, secretly recruited three students to embody in October last year, a fictional case inspired by true stories.

The students of 4th secondary were gathered in the auditorium on the pretext of watching a movie. A police officer came, addressed to the director, who has clocked Felix Patenaude, one of the students actors, before leaving the premises with him.

Mr. Roy was expected that students absorb the shock, and then told them that it was a simulation. A video telling the story has been projected. On stage, the police officer and the actor have replicates what happens at the police station : search, interrogation, and reading of rights.

Two days later, 200 students attended the mock trial of the boy at the courthouse in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. A fake trial, but conducted by real lawyers and a real judge of the juvenile Court, where the three actors had to testify.

“It is a machine that the justice system has placed at our disposal,” said Mr. Roy. Throughout my career, I have never seen students so quiet. “

It is therefore in the course of the trial that the young people were able to learn from what point in time stops the consent of the person being photographed and what is legal or not (see another text).

Benefits

The psycho-educator Karine Champagne has also seen the fallout in his office. Girls who had shared photos daring themselves came to confide in her. “We were able to defuse certain situations. “

“Guys have said to me : “I’ll be careful now”. Not because they don’t want to get caught, but because, before that, they did not know that they were not allowed [to pass] these photos, ” says Ms. Champagne.

“It should be in all schools. It has really changed our way of thinking “, says Anthony Biron.

What they said

“I have friends around me to whom it happened. I’ll know better how to be there for them now. What to say, what to do. I might be able to help to go to talk to an adult. “

– Maghalie Career-Dussault

“I really hesitated [before accepting to embody Mégane]. My fear was that other people think that I had actually sent photos of myself. But while the world has very well understood that it was fictional. “

– Melanie Beauvais

“In 2017, everyone has a cell phone. It is made so simple [send a picture]. “

– Anthony Biron

“It was really different [workshops] awareness that one usually has, which are similar to conferences. It came to pick up our emotions […] I think that it is all out more mature and more enlightened. “

– Maghalie Career-Dussault

“Now, I believe that there will be more caution. And more respect. “

– Maghalie Career-Dussault

The fictional case

Photo courtesy

Mathieu (played by Isaac Felx) and Tommy (played by Felix Patenaude) sitting around a camp fire, in the video that was presented to the students.

The case, which has been used at the school Soulanges is inspired by several actual folders on which were worked the women lawyers Stephanie Castagnier and Karine Poissant.

1. In a video, you can see the characters of Tommy and Matthew sitting around a fire. Tommy tells his friend that he broke up with his girlfriend Megan. It has, however, retained a picture of her, naked breasts. Mathieu insists to see the photo, but Tommy refuses.

2. Two days later, the two friends exchange text messages. Mathieu asks again to see the photo of Megan. Tommy hesitates, then finally gave in and sends him the photo.

However, Meghan had in the past asked Tommy to delete this photo of it, something he has not done.

3. Later, Matthew confesses to Megan that Tommy has forwarded the photo. The adolescent is therefore a complaint to the police.

4. Tommy is accused of distribution and possession of child pornography. At the end of his trial, he will be found guilty of the two counts.

5. He was sentenced to community service work, to participate in a workshop on the cybersexualité and not to use their cell phone for a year. A plug of DNA was also carried out.

In a conversation by text messages, Mathieu insists repeatedly that Tommy sends his intimate photo of Megan. Despite his misgivings, Tommy finally agreed to send the photo of the young Megan.

► Even if, in the history, this is a photo of naked breasts, the photo that was presented before the students showed a rather a woman in her bra. It was fuzzy and there was obviously not of the student playing Mégane.

Lessons learned

Child pornography

Any photos of nudity of teens can be considered child pornography, since they are minors, even if they have taken themselves. The exchange of such a photo between two young people in the context of an intimate relationship can be tolerated, provided that it remains private.

The consent

“From the time the person requests that a photo be removed, there is more than consent,” says Me Castagnier. The young man who refuses to remove it thus may be accused of possession of child pornography.

To show is to share

In the case of the transmission of photos, however, there is no exception, explain the lawyers. You can never share a photo of nudity of a minor, even if she accepts that it is shared. The simple fact of showing such a photograph, even without the send, may be enough to bring charges.

The risk

“In a romantic relationship, the trust is there. But maybe in two months this will not be the same and that you’re going to hate the person [or vice versa]. It made us realize that this is the kind of thing you can regret ” has caught Maghalie Career-Dussault.

Not just the girls

The majority of cases that plead, the lawyers involving a boy accused for having shared the photo of a girl. “But you see the two. There are also cases where it is the boy who is naked, sometimes in the context of challenges, ” observes Me Castagnier.