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The Catalan education department has backtracked on some of its initial statements following the tragic events in the small town of Sallent. On Tuesday at noon, two twin sisters, 12 years old, jumped into the void from the balcony of their family's third floor apartment. They left behind a letter, and the local police from the central Catalonia municipality also found two chairs, which they had stood on beside the railing. One of the twins died and her sister was seriously injured and was flown by helicopter to the Parc Taulí Hospital in Sabadell, where she remains in a critical but stable condition.

Even before the Mossos d'Esquadra police, who are in charge of investigating the case, had closed and delivered to a judge their summary of the facts - a document which is expected to be completed on Friday morning with the conclusion that the two girls jumped intentionally, in an attempt to take their own lives - the education departmental administration in the central Catalonia counties had repeatedly affirmed that they had not detected bullying and had ruled it out in the case. The mayor of the municipality expressed himself along the same way lines, and repeated his assertion this Thursday morning in a conversation with ElCaso.cat.

Catalan education minister Josep Gónzalez Cambray with the mayor of Sallent, Oriol Ribalta, in an archive photo / ElCaso.cat

The mayor Oriol Ribalta backed the education department version, asserting that there had been no signs that the two girls had suffered school bullying at the Sallent secondary school that they attended. But at times, reality is very harsh. The Mossos d'Esquadra had already warned yesterday evening that its investigators from the unit based in nearby Manresa are not ruling out anything, not even bullying as one of the factors in these fatal events. Among the parents of students at the school, there are also voices who have asserted that harassment had taken place. This morning, the mother of one of the girls' classmates affirmed that they were aware of insults directed at the girls, especially one of the two sisters who was undergoing a gender transition, and that after the events of Tuesday they had learned more details of what was happening at the school, although the management team had initially denied it.

Now, the education department does not rule out bullying

Thus, the education administration has backed down and now admits that it cannot rule out any hypothesis in the case of the Sallent twins. In fact, it has, activitated its Support Unit for Students in Situations of Violence (USAV), affirming that the latest information has forced a rethink of the first statements. For this reason, says the education department, no hypothesis can be ruled out, not even that of school bullying, even though, as is usual in this type of situation, they are working with a scenario of multiple factors, with conditioning aspects in the social and family environment. The specialists resources of the education department have been working since the tragedy occurred to respond to the situation of grief and loss in the school and community. The department assures that no specific problem of school bullying had been detected, but it had been providing psychological support and guidance to the students since the beginning of the school year.

Anna Chillida, general director of the education department's student welfare area, explained that they have activated the USAV to carry out an investigation in parallel to the one being carried out by the Mossos and which will be overseen by the Manresa police court. Chillida states that, in cases of suicide, mental health experts and professionals note that cases are always subject to "multiple factors" and thus "require the maximum possible resources and the investigation of the maximum amount of information".

Catalan department of Feminisms also offers attention services

The girl who died in the tragic events of Sallent had assured her class that she intended to make a gender transition and had asked to change her name, which is why the transphobic insults that have been detected are also being investigated as part of the inquiry process. At the education department they recall that in the case of discrimination on the basis of gender or against people who want to make a gender transition, the Equality and Feminisms ministry in the Generalitat has resources distributed across Catalonia to provide support.