Doctor believes bullying played role in teen’s death
REGINA When family physician Dr. Carol Geddes learned an inquest was being held to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of 13-year-old Kaleab Schmidt, she personally hand-delivered her file on the teen for use by the Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service.
The reason, she told the inquest on Wednesday, was because she wants to see something productive done to confront the continuing problem of bullying in schools.
“I don’t ever want to see any child or really any adult commit suicide because of bullying ...,” Geddes said through tears. “Bullying with racial slurs, it shouldn’t happen.”
She said while there’s plenty of talk about zero tolerance, it often doesn’t translate into action.
“I don’t really see any teeth in it at all,” she said.
The coroner’s jury previously heard Kaleab — adopted by the Schmidt family from Ethiopia as a child — was subject to bullying and racism at Greenall High School in the time leading to his April 30, 2018, suicide.
Geddes said Kaleab lived a hard life in Ethiopia and believed fighting was necessary to confront his problems with bullying at the predominantly white school.
She said she came up with a detailed plan with him intended to prevent self-harm in 2017 when he attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. She said Kaleab refused medication for mental health issues, and told the doctor several months after the attempt that he wasn’t having suicidal thoughts.
Geddes’ other conclusion at the time was that Kaleab was being bullied at school.
Geddes told jurors she is treating several children for anxiety and depression, and that suicidal thoughts among children is not uncommon.
While psychiatrist Dr. Samiul Haque — who came on board after Kaleab’s overdose — didn’t diagnose depression, he did find issues of anxiety.
And although he acknowledged Kaleab expressed having suicidal thoughts, he testified he didn’t then believe the teen intended to follow through.
In terms of what he thinks could help teens who have suicidal thoughts, he said there aren’t enough mental health professionals available to cope with the problem.
Meanwhile, psychologist Dr. Allisson Quine, who worked periodically with Kaleab between 2014 and 2018, said in retrospect she wishes there had been a more “cohesive treatment” involving the various professionals involved, rather than a situation in which his mom had to act as go-between.
The inquest also heard that while certain training and education wasn’t readily available to adoptive families at the time of Kaleab’s adoption, it now is.
Outside of the inquest, two of Kaleab’s friends who share his Ethiopian background said bullying and racism in Sask. schools is very real. Both have experienced it themselves in Regina schools, and were among those who put together a video in the wake of Kaleab’s death, seeking change.