Po­lice say the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the death of 15-year-old Jay­den Lalchan re­mains ac­tive, even though they found there is in­suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence that showed bul­ly­ing led to the teen end­ing his life. Yes­ter­day, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Wayne Mys­tar is­sued a state­ment to the me­dia, giv­ing an up­date on the high­ly pub­li­cised probe.

In it, Mys­tar said, “The ev­i­dence gar­nered to date does not meet the ev­i­den­tial thresh­old.”

As such, no charges would be laid. Jay­den, who was a stu­dent of St Stephen’s Col­lege in Princes Town, end­ed his life on Oc­to­ber 3 at his home. Yes­ter­day, af­ter the po­lice is­sued the state­ment, Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Jay­den’s par­ents at their home.

At the time, they had not been of­fi­cial­ly in­formed by the po­lice about the de­ci­sion. Jay­den’s moth­er, Fa­ree­da, said she was un­aware of the po­lice find­ings but said she would seek in­for­ma­tion and speak on it. The po­lice launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the teen’s death fol­low­ing com­plaints by his par­ents that acts of bul­ly­ing at this school, St Stephen’s Col­lege, led to their on­ly child end­ing his life.

These claims sparked wide­spread out­rage and sad­ness, with the pub­lic join­ing fam­i­lies in their calls for jus­tice. Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and sev­er­al MPs and sen­a­tors were among those ex­press­ing sad­ness and heart­break over the cir­cum­stances of Jay­den’s death.

On Oc­to­ber 7, hun­dreds of peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ed in an emo­tion­al can­dle­light vig­il in ho­n­our of Jay­den and con­demned bul­ly­ing in schools. They al­so de­mand­ed jus­tice for the teen. In a state­ment yes­ter­day, ACP Mys­tar ex­plained how the po­lice ar­rived at the de­ci­sion. “South­ern Di­vi­sion in­ves­ti­ga­tors con­duct­ed ex­ten­sive en­quiries and have care­ful­ly re­viewed all avail­able ev­i­dence, and have de­ter­mined that there is cur­rent­ly in­suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate any acts of bul­ly­ing by any in­di­vid­ual or group as a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to Jay­den’s death.”

How­ev­er, the ACP said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains ac­tive and en­cour­aged any­one with new in­for­ma­tion or ev­i­dence to come for­ward as the po­lice con­tin­ue to seek an­swers and pro­vide clo­sure for the fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. 

Mys­tar said the po­lice would keep the pub­lic in­formed as the in­ves­ti­ga­tion pro­gress­es.

Mean­while, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, in a state­ment on Oc­to­ber 7, said the min­istry’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion found no ev­i­dence that Lalchan had en­dured years of bul­ly­ing. 

The min­is­ter said then, “No ev­i­dence has been pre­sent­ed to sug­gest that Jay­den was made to en­dure years of sus­tained bul­ly­ing, as there were no pri­or or sub­se­quent re­ports of bul­ly­ing made to the school and no re­ports to the min­istry on this is­sue.”

She stat­ed then that based on the re­port re­ceived, the first in­di­ca­tion of any kind that Jay­den was hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty at school came in the form of a let­ter from Jay­den to a teacher on Sep­tem­ber 17.

“The let­ter ref­er­enced teas­ing by an­oth­er stu­dent. This was be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by the Dean,” the min­is­ter said. 

On Sep­tem­ber 26, she said, a stu­dent pulled Jay­den’s mask, and Jay­den re­tal­i­at­ed by punch­ing the stu­dent. A teacher quelled the al­ter­ca­tion. The re­port, the min­is­ter said, fur­ther stat­ed that Jay­den’s par­ents vis­it­ed the school for the first time on Sep­tem­ber 27 but did not meet with the prin­ci­pal.  

St Stephen’s Col­lege, in a state­ment pub­lished in the news­pa­per, al­so de­nied that Jay­den was a vic­tim of bul­ly­ing, as it had not re­ceived any such re­ports.

Pub­lic out­rage

But as news of the state­ment by the po­lice spread yes­ter­day, ac­tivists and mem­bers of the pub­lic were quick to ques­tion the de­ci­sion. Com­ment­ing on the sto­ry post­ed on the CNC3’s so­cial me­dia pages, In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work pres­i­dent Adri­ana San­drine Isaac-Rat­tan post­ed, “Ex­treme­ly dis­ap­point­ing news?? So no jus­tice for Jay­den’s fam­i­ly, and the al­leged bul­ly wins??? More pow­er to bul­lies whilst vic­tims feel help­less ??? What a burn­ing shame.”

O’Con­ner Camp­bell stat­ed, “This is a kick in the stom­ach for this child’s par­ents, and the bul­ly­ing will con­tin­ue ... it’s a sad day again in Trinidad and To­ba­go where jus­tice is some­thing cit­i­zens do not get, that’s why peo­ple take it up in their own hands.”

Mean­while, Renu­ka Nu­ka James said, “Sweet boy, may you con­tin­ue to sip (sleep in peace) and par­ents, God will give you the strength to live. Jus­tice in this coun­try is hope­less ... I pray no par­ents have to lose a child to bul­ly­ing again be­cause no jus­tice will be serve (sic).”

Kim­ber­ly Moses wrote, “It’s sad to see what our coun­try has come to where crim­i­nals can walk free in this coun­try and noth­ing is be­ing done to pro­tect the cit­i­zens of this coun­try. It’s sad that his par­ents can’t get jus­tice, nor is the de­ceased alive to de­fend his name ...”

If you or any­one you know has been bat­tling thoughts of self-harm, please con­tact Life­line at 800-5588; Child­line 800-4321 or the 24-Hour Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Hot­line 800-COPE (2673).