Almost a month after the twins Leila and Alana (who had recently verbalized her desire to be identified as Iván) made the decision that ended the life of the second, the director of the Llobregat de Sallent institute where the two sisters attended has submitted his resignation. Josep Olivella communicated his decision during a meeting of the faculty held this Tuesday afternoon, as several sources have confirmed to La Vanguardia.
The faculty meeting revolved exclusively around the two sisters who were in their first year of high school at the center and who repeatedly denounced that they were being harassed by other students. A bullying that appears in the first police report that the homicide group of the Mossos d’Esquadra of the central police region sent to the Manresa judge who is directing the investigation.
A complicated job that is advancing without pause, especially now that the pressure from the media has subsided and the police can speak to witnesses without the anguish of the first days. But the tension was reproduced during the meeting on Tuesday, which was attended by the inspector of the Department of Education, Josep Roca, and the director of the Territorial Services for Education in Central Catalonia, Gemma Boix.
The director of the center defended the work that had been done, but admitted that given the “unbearable” pressure suffered in recent weeks, he had decided to resign. He still promised to remain in office until the end of the course.
After the event, those responsible for the Department of Education assured that there was no record that the sisters suffered bullying and that for this reason none of the planned protocols had been activated. Some statements copied by the mayor of Sallent, Oriol Ribalta, who, like Educació, initially pointed out “the social environment” of the minors to seek explanations for the decision that Alana made and that her sister Leila wanted to follow.
Some unfortunate first statements that caused the family’s discomfort and that the students of the Llobregat Institute themselves called a concentration first and a protest later, demanding responsibilities and public recognition that things had not been done well.
What the center did or did not do, the tutor and the rest of the people with whom the two sisters interacted in recent times are dealt with by the Mossos in a particularly complicated judicial investigation.
This week the police took a statement from the mother of the minors. Maia Fortete went to the Mossos de Manresa police station accompanied by her lawyer at ten in the morning, and she was declaring until half past three. Five hours in which the woman herself stitched together a hard, difficult story, broken on more than one occasion by emotion, impotence and tears, but essential for researchers. In the next few days it will be her father’s turn.
Both continue without leaving the Sant Joan de Déu hospital, where Leila remains hospitalized, the other daughter who wrote that she did not want to die, but that she could not leave her sister alone at that time either.
The doctors caring for her have already withdrawn her from assisted breathing, but she continues with a strong dose of painkillers to endure the pain. She is aware of her, she recognizes her parents, her grandparents, but she knows nothing about her. The important thing is that she recovers physically, and the specialists will take care of strengthening her interior to emotionally manage what happened and the absence of her sister.
In addition to the mother’s account at the police headquarters, the Mossos have already taken a statement from the director of the institute, Josep Olivella, the minor’s tutor and the mother of one of the sisters’ companions. In the next few days, they will take a statement from three minors close to the victims who, after what happened, told the media about different episodes in which the sisters were harassed and humiliated. As well as the way Alana faced and responded, to defend herself against her. A situation that was always resolved with her punished at the Institute, with frequent expulsions from class and even from the center. A situation that the young woman repeatedly denounced as being unfair to her. And so she transferred it to the educational psychologist of the Institute, whom she visited no more and no less than 32 times.
