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13-year-old commits suicide after repeated bullying for being Welsh


Sian Yates was a model student taking French and art exams early

A top pupil was found hanging at her home after classmates had teased her for being Welsh.

The only Welsh girl at her school in Leicester, the teenager - described by her former head teacher as "an amazing and popular student" - had been bullied by a jealous classmate, the inquiry into her death has heard.

Sian Yates, 13, was discovered by her older sister, suspended by a belt from her bunk-bed in March this year, the hearing at Leicester Town Hall was told.
An internet page "related to suicide and details on how long it took to become unconscious and how long various things would take to do" was then found, recently accessed, on the family's home computer, the sister told police.

An undated note discovered by her bed revealed she had been unhappy at home and at school for months and was "tired of the punches, slaps and abusive words".

But she had not been bullied in the months leading to her death, said teachers and friends in evidence, and had seemed her normal happy self on the day she died.
Sian had become a model student at Riverside Business and Enterprise College, in Rowley Fields, Leicester, the inquest was told.

She excelled in most subjects and even took her French and art exams early. She took part in school plays, played the violin and was praised for helping younger pupils integrate into school life.

But the talented youngster was also experiencing the kind of problems common in schools across the country.

She had been bullied, felt under pressure to get good grades and worried about her relationships with friends, the inquiry was told.
In the previous academic year, head teacher Bernadette Green was forced to intervene when the Year 9 student was picked on by a classmate.

"There was an issue of Sian being bullied at the end of year 8 by a girl who was taking certain lessons with Sian," the teacher told the inquest.
"It was usually name calling ... jealousy by this student."

Ms Green spoke to the bully and the name calling - including "blonde bimbo" and jibes about her Welsh family links - stopped, the inquest was told.
When later asked by the head if she had experienced any more problems, the pupil told her "not a peep".

Ms Green said: "She said nothing to worry me or concern me. She seemed very at ease with what she was doing. She was very happy.
"She was an extrovert. She was the life and soul of her class and tutor group. She excelled at everything.

"She did not give us any reason to believe she was not coping. All of her teachers said she seemed to be taking it all in her stride."

But a best friend revealed the teenager had spoken about killing herself in the weeks before her death.

In a written statement to police, the classmate said: "Sian had told me she had been trying to kill herself for four months. I was shocked by this and had no idea she was doing something like this.

"She said she felt stressed and under pressure and everyone expected her to do well. Her friends seemed to be changing and she felt left out sometimes.

"We felt she would not do this and would not go through with it. On that day Sian seemed her normal self."

Sian was found hanging at her home in Danvers Road, Leicester, on the afternoon of March 1.

Her father, a first aider, arrived soon after she was cut down by her mother and sister and he gave his daughter CPR. The teenager was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary where she was pronounced dead.

Mr Yates, giving evidence, said: "I have no idea why she did it, not an inkling. I think it seems she might have tried to get some esteem with some of her school friends but it went tragically wrong."

Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Martin Symington said: "It's not entirely clear what was the cause for her to do this. But clearly she was in the early stages of puberty and emotions were very much awry.

"There were issues that perhaps you and I would consider quite trivial, but for Sian they were probably very serious issues."

Samaritans, the charity which provides confidential support to people in emotional distress, said it had been warning about the dangers of so-called suicide websites and chatrooms for more than two years.

Spokesman Mike Cobb said: "The charity says that too many of them show step-by-step methods to young, vulnerable, even unwell people on how to take their lives and have no balance whatsoever - in that there is no alternative offered, no support given.

"Suicide is often presented as the only option to solve what are usually very minor and very temporary problems, which could be resolved simply by opening up and talking to friends and family, or alternatively to an organisation such as Samaritans, which is here 24 hours a day to help people with emotional problems."

He added that Samaritans continues to work with the internet industry to promote the charity's own website Samaritans > Confidential emotional support 24 hours a day in order for support to be made available when a variety of search phrases are typed into search engines.

13-year-old commits suicide after repeated bullying for being Welsh | the Daily Mail