Bullied Mia, 14, was failed by school, says heartbroken father
THE heartbroken father of a 14-year-old schoolgirl who took her own life after being bullied by male peers has said she was ‘failed’ by the ‘people who were meant to keep her safe’.
Mia Janin, a Year 10 pupil at the Jewish Free School (JFS) in northwest London, was found dead at her family home on March 12, 2021.
An inquest this week heard she was subjected to a vicious campaign of bullying by male pupils at school and online, including in a degrading boys-only Snapchat group.
Coroner Tony Murphy at Barnet coroner’s court in north London yesterday concluded Mia ‘took her life while still a child’. He said she ‘experienced bullying behaviour from some male students’.
Tragically Mia’s mother, Marisa Janin, died just months after her daughter following an aneurysm.
After the inquest, Mr Janin said: ‘Nothing will bring back my wife and my daughter Mia. For almost three years, we have sought answers for the loss of Mia. Today, we find some of the answers and the failure of the people who were meant to keep her safe... There needs to be accountability. Another family cannot live what I have lived.’ He paid tribute to his ‘fantastic’ daughter, adding: ‘She was very bubbly, [had] a good sense of humour. She was beautiful.’
Mr Janin, an interior designer originally from Argentina, called for changes in the law ‘to protect our kids’, including limits on children’s internet access. He added: ‘The school has to be more vigilant, they need to involve more young people who understand all this social media and this technology better than us.’
JFS told the inquest it was unaware of the bullying and of the Snapchat group before Mia’s death.