KEVON FELMINE

South­ern Di­vi­sion Po­lice are ex­pect­ed to ap­proach the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) next week, seek­ing fur­ther guid­ance on the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­leged bul­ly­ing that led to the trag­ic death of 15-year-old Jay­den Lalchan.

ACP Wayne Mys­tar said in­ves­ti­ga­tors from the Princes Town Po­lice Sta­tion have in­ter­viewed all the in­di­vid­u­als in­volved, in­clud­ing the al­leged bul­ly, a school­boy, and his par­ents. He not­ed that due to the sen­si­tive na­ture of the case, the po­lice will need the DPP to de­ter­mine the next course of ac­tion.

“We are al­most done com­pil­ing the re­port to sub­mit to the DPP, hope­ful­ly by Mon­day. In fact, it should be ready by to­mor­row (to­day, Fri­day),” Mys­tar said.

As for pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures, he said a pro­pos­al had been sent to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion through the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice’s of­fice, seek­ing ap­proval for the South­ern Di­vi­sion to es­tab­lish an an­ti-bul­ly­ing cam­paign at the school Jay­den at­tend­ed, St Stephen’s Col­lege, Princes Town.

St Stephen’s Col­lege, in a full-page news­pa­per ad­ver­tise­ment, de­nied any re­port of bul­ly­ing had been made by Jay­den at the school.

Jay­den, a Form Four stu­dent, took his ife on Oc­to­ber 3 at his home in Broomage Road, just a day be­fore his school host­ed a peace march. His moth­er, Fa­ree­da Lalchan claimed that in the days lead­ing up to his death, stu­dents had been ver­bal­ly ha­rass­ing him.

Fol­low­ing the al­ter­ca­tion, the moth­er claimed the bul­ly be­gan mak­ing threats to­ward Jay­den, caus­ing him to be­come so fear­ful that he was afraid to leave the school com­pound. Ac­cord­ing to her, a teacher had to es­cort Jay­den home, as he was ter­ri­fied the bul­ly and his friends would at­tack him once he stepped out of the school gate.

While po­lice in­ves­ti­gat­ed, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion con­duct­ed its in­quiries and re­port­ed that con­trary to some claims, there was no ev­i­dence to sug­gest that Jay­den had en­dured years of sus­tained bul­ly­ing.

Par­ents have re­port­ed that the al­leged bul­ly has not been at­tend­ing class­es re­cent­ly and the school has start­ed pro­vid­ing coun­selling ses­sions for stu­dents.

Any­one strug­gling with thoughts of self-harm is urged to reach out to the Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Hot­line at 800-COPE (2673), Life­line at 800-5588, GROOTS TT at 384-4722, Child Line at 800-4321, and Fam­i­lies in Ac­tion at 628-2333.