A few days ago in Leicester, heartbreaking news spread around the local community of a year 11 student taking their own life. 

This child, who has been described as kind hearted and with a bright future ahead of him, was a student of Moat Community College. 

The following day after the child had taken his own life, the school held an assembly for the students where they talked about the student taking his own life. There was only a brief mention of being respectful in this assembly. Up until this moment, the school has not informed parents of what has occurred nor have they released any statement regarding this incident.

This petition aims for bringing about change in the community, particularly at Moat Community College.

• The first and main goal is to get solid services for mental health put into place in the school.Currently, the only ‘service’ for those struggling with their mental health and related problems is going to staff members such as the YAC (the Year Achievement Coordinator). This is not enough for students as both the student and the staff member will already hold biases about each other, making any sort of counselling session ineffective. We are petitioning for an external therapist/ mentor/ councillor to be available for the students. With an external trained therapist, students will be able to approach them with full confidence and having no fear of being judged. This will be a confidential and reliable service for the students to access at any time, which will help them combat and overcome difficult situations they may face.
• The second point is for the school to take some accountability instead of what seemingly feels like trying to ignore the situation. As parents, siblings and friends and family members of the students of this school, it feels absolutely embarrassing and appalling that we have to tell the school to take some accountability.
• Mandatory training for mental health awareness and workshops for all staff members, in order to better understand how to notice and help resolve mental health conflicts.
• Staff members at this school need to better-direct their focus to helping students rather than punishing them for the most trivial matter. In Moat Community College, if a student is a few minutes late, or if they forget their tie, if they misbehave in the corridor etc, they get a detention straight away. These stringent rules put additional pressures on the children, whose lives are already under a tremendous amount of pressure. Instead of focusing on how many students have their shirts tucked in or how many students wear coats indoors, maybe the school should redirect their focus on helping the students grow and improve both academically and mentally. Parents don’t send their children to school so that their child can wear a better looking uniform than other schools. The purpose of parents sending their child to school is so that they can learn necessary knowledge and skills which will help them in their future endeavours. Parents don’t send their children to schools so that their children can be treated like prisoners. It’s reached a point where its beyond a joke.
• The school to release a sincere and honest public statement with regards to this situation, to inform the family of those who attend the school of what has occurred and apologise for not making parents aware of the situation. This statement should acknowledge the tragedy of this loss, including a realistic plan of the changes the school will implement in order to prevent situations like the current one form reoccurring.
• We also call for a full and thorough investigation into how this situation occurred and hold all those responsible, including those with authority over the child, to account

Schools should be a place of learning and safety. It should be a welcoming environment where our children, siblings, family members and friends are all safe.In Moat Community College, this is clearly not the case as this is the second student death within 2 years.

We, the local community, will never tolerate this. We won’t ignore the loss of a friend, family member and brother and we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent such incidents from reoccurring. We will  not be silenced by insincere apologies or false displays of grief. Nothing will distract us from the fact that a school could have use the authority that they hold over students to save a life, yet they seemingly decided to ignore it.

Help share this petition to help see these changes being implemented firstly in this school, and then nationally. Potentially save a life and help prevent situations like this from reoccurring.

Thank you.