‘Shame on you’: Parents accuse Bristol University of failing to learn lessons from student suicide

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The dad and mom of a student who took her personal life have accused her college of failing to learn lessons from her suicide.

Maggie and Bob Abrahart branded the University of Bristol “shameful” after it misplaced its bid to overturn a ruling that it discriminated towards their daughter Natasha Abrahart earlier than she killed herself – but it failed to acknowledge the High Court choice in its response.

Mr Abrahart stated on Wednesday: “Today’s statement from the University is bizarre. It entirely fails to mention that the High Court has upheld a finding that it contributed to our daughter’s death by discriminating against her. Don’t they care?

“Frankly, it gives me no confidence whatsoever that the University of Bristol are willing to learn the lessons from Natasha’s death, even though those lessons have now been spelled out by a High Court judge. It’s shameful.”

The 20-year-old physics student, who had continual anxiousness, was discovered useless in her flat in April 2018, on the day she was due to participate in a bunch presentation in entrance of greater than 40 college students in a 329-seat lecture theatre.

Ms Abrahart was a “wonderful” particular person, her dad and mom, from West Bridgford, Nottingham, advised The Independent. She was vibrant, performed the piano and cello and beloved cooking.

Bristol County Court beforehand heard Ms Abrahart had made a earlier suicide try within the winter time period, and college employees have been conscious she was struggling.

Before the presentation, generally known as a laboratory convention, she had struggled to full one-on-one interview-based assessments, with the court docket advised she had scored solely eight out of a potential 20 marks in a single evaluation.

In May 2022, Judge Alex Ralton dominated the college had breached its duties beneath the Equality Act by failing to make “reasonable adjustments” for Ms Abrahart in gentle of her debilitating anxiousness, which is taken into account a incapacity.

Judge Ralton, sitting on the Civil Justice Centre in Bristol, additionally discovered the college had engaged in oblique incapacity discrimination towards Ms Abrahart, and handled her unfavourably as a result of of the results of her incapacity.

However, the decide dismissed a declare that the college had been negligent.

The college was ordered to pay Ms Abrahart’s dad and mom £50,000 in damages and invited to agree a sum for her funeral bills.

In December final yr, the college introduced an attraction within the High Court, arguing that the decide was flawed to discover that it knew, or ought to have recognized, sufficient about Ms Abrahart’s situation to alter the assessments.

Lawyers for the college additionally stated the establishment had acted moderately “given the importance of maintaining academic standards, and fairness to other students”.

However, Ms Abrahart’s father, Robert Abrahart, opposed the attraction, along with his legal professionals telling the court docket the decide was proper in his choice and that oral assessments may have been changed with written variations or the student may have been supplied with questions prematurely.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Mr Justice Linden dismissed the college’s attraction.

He stated: “There will no doubt be many cases where it is reasonable to verify what the disabled person says and/or to require expert evidence or recommendations so as to make well-informed decisions… But what a disabled person says and/or does is evidence.

“There may be circumstances, such as urgency and/or the severity of their condition, in which a court will be prepared to conclude that it is sufficient evidence for an educational institution to be required to take action.”

Following the ruling, Professor Evelyn Welch, vice chancellor and president of the University of Bristol, stated: “Natasha’s death is a tragedy – I am deeply sorry for the Abrahart family’s loss.

“At Bristol, we care profoundly for all our students, and their mental health and wellbeing is a priority and is at the heart of everything we do. We continue to develop and improve our services and safeguards to support our students who need help.

“In appealing, we were seeking clarity for the higher education sector around the application of the Equality Act when staff do not know a student has a disability, or when it has yet to be diagnosed. We will work with colleagues across the sector as we consider the judgment.”

Prof Welch continued: “In 2022 Bristol became one of the first universities to receive the University Mental Health Charter Award, which recognises the continued hard work of our staff and students in terms of taking a strong, structured approach towards improving mental health and wellbeing across our university.

“We know there is always more to do, and we will keep working to achieve the best for everyone in our community.”

Ms Abrahart’s dad and mom on Wednesday repeated the areas the place they blamed the University “for the role it played in our daughter’s death” in phrases spoken exterior the County Court after it handed down its judgment in May 2022.

Adding to the listing on Wednesday, Mr Abrahart stated: “Today we also blame the University for making inappropriate public statements, issued following the judgment that it has today failed to overturn.

“It was, frankly, beyond belief for the University to mischaracterise a court judgment, that it had unlawfully contributed to the death of one of its students, as merely a finding that ‘the adjustments made by the University … were insufficient’. As if it had engaged in some trivial technical breach. As if our daughter’s death was something to be explained away. As if our pain was an inconvenient distraction from the business, and it is a business, of attracting students and funders. Shame on you!”

Calling for motion from the University, Mrs Abrahart stated: “We want you to read this judgment very carefully and follow its lessons.” She added that the dad and mom are nonetheless ready for an apology.

In the years since their daughter’s dying, the Abraharts have been preventing for justice, with the hope of saving different college students from the identical destiny. Alongside the households of different younger individuals who have tragically died, the couple arrange the marketing campaign teams The Lived Experience for Action Right Now (LEARN) Network and #ForThe100 calling for change.

Shannett Thompson, a companion at Kingsley Napley specialising in college misconduct investigations, described Wednesday’s ruling as a “landmark” within the wider debate on the obligation of care owed to college students by universities.

Chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which intervened within the case, stated: “This case will help ensure universities benefit from clearer guidance on their duties under the Equality Act, when they arise, and where the competence standard exception can be applied.

“We also hope that current and prospective disabled students will feel empowered by this judgment, which provides them with clarity on what they should expect from their university.”

The University of Bristol stated Prof Welch is writing to Mr and Mrs Abrahart at the moment with a proposal to meet together with her.

– Samaritans could be referred to as on 116 123, or emailed at jo@samaritans.org