Nikolas Clarke acted for a sixth form college in an inquest into the death of a 17-year-old student who took his own life in March 2021
Background
JW was a 17-year-old student with a history of mental health struggles. He was bullied at secondary school and referred to CAMHS in 2017. He had previously attempted to take his own life.
Following that suicide attempt, JW received therapy and was assessed for autism by CAMHS.
In October 2020, he started at the sixth form college. The college was alerted to JW’s previous suicidal feelings.
In March 2021, when the students were not on campus, JW’s then girlfriend expressed concerns to the college’s keyworker about the impact on JW of her ending their relationship.
The keyworker phoned JW, who seemed upset but hung up on her. The keyworker then contacted JW’s mother but the call did not cover the ending of the relationship and was cut short.
Shortly afterwards, JW took his own life at a local railway bridge.
The inquest
The four-day inquest into JW’s death considered
- information sharing between agencies and the school about his mental health issues
- college staff’s awareness of the implications of autism
- whether Article 2 was engaged (because of a failure in systemic duties)
Coroner’s conclusion
The coroner made no causative findings against the school. He found Article 2 was not engaged as broad systems were in place.