Parents of tragic teen not told of school’s concerns
Inquest hears he told staff about sixth form struggles
THE parents of a teenager found dead did not find out about concerns for their son’s wellbeing or issues around potential bullying until after his death, an inquest has heard.
Matthew Young was just 17 when he reached out to his support team at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School to tell them he was struggling with sixth form and life in general.
In an email sent to student support officer Rachel Fletcher on July 2, Matthew said he was anxious about being contacted about late work, adding: “But that’s the least of my worries.
“Life is s*** right now, I’m just back to where I was last year.
“I just feel like c*** all the time, I can’t sleep or talk to anyone.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
However, the concerning statement did not prompt any action from the school, and Matthew’s heartbroken parents didn’t find out about his true feelings until after the teen’s death.
On the second day of the inquest, area coroner Catherine McKenna heard that this was one of several concerns flagged by staff that were not communicated to Matthew’s parents, Ian and Jacqueline Young.
Another potential bullying incident raised by Matthew in an email was not relayed to his parents, as staff believed him when he told them that he’d discussed the incident with them and no longer needed help dealing with it.
The pair raised questions about how so many concerns could have been logged on the Child Protection Online Management System, known as CPOMS, but none of these had been shared with them or escalated with more senior staff or Matthew’s consellors at Healthy Young Minds Bury.
Deputy headteacher Paul Reeves told the court that the teenager’s mental state had been exceptionally bad as Matthew was preparing to take his GCSEs, with healthcare professionals considering admitting the youngster to inpatient mental health services after he was found with razor blades in his bag, put a rope around his neck, and made a possible overdose attempt.
Mr Reeves, who has now retired, admitted that during this period he was worried about Matthew every day, but believed the youngster’s mental state had improved since he’d entered sixth form.
At one point, his physics teacher Ryan Stringer had to contact Mr Reeves for assistance with Matthew’s mental state after he saw the teenager put a pen into a plug socket during one of his lessons, and had heard him say “I can use this later”.
But Matthew appeared to turn a corner during the summer after his GCSEs, the court heard, taking a ten-day trip to China with the school and completing the National Citizenship Service.
Mr Reeves explained that Matthew had looked like a “completely different child” during the trip, and seemed much more positive than he’d ever been.
“He was outstanding, it was like he was a completely different child,” the former deputy head added.
“He was full of life, he was enthusiastic, he mixed, he was funny, I’d never seen Matthew like that before.
“It was amazing, it was like someone had turned a light on inside. I was less worried about him in sixth form than in year ten and 11, I was worried about him every single day in year ten and 11 but he seemed to be improving.”
However, Matthew’s positive mood didn’t stay, and teachers reported seeing him withdraw and isolate himself away from others at school when he returned for sixth form.
In March 2020, just before the first national lockdown, mum Jacqueline contacted the school to tell them her son’s mental health was deteriorating, and the youngster had expressed anger about the safety plan put in place by the establishment to keep him safe - telling his school counsellor “no one trusts me”.
The court heard that this safety plan was put in place after a number of concerning incidents, and had been reevaluated at the start of each school year.
However, it was not reassessed when Matthew returned to school in September 2020, as shortnotice covid policies announced by the government had put a lot of strain on the school.
Although lockdown appeared to help Matthew, with his parents getting to spend more quality time with their son, he told support staff at school that he felt lonely and isolated and that his depression and anxiety were “taking over”.
He started to fall behind in all of his subjects, with teachers noticing that his work submission became “erratic”, often receiving no work from him for a period of time, before the teenager submitted a batch of work all at once.
Mrs Young was desperate to know why she hadn’t been contacted about any of these concerns, asking: “Given Matthew’s state of mind prior to lockdown and then the number of entries made during that lockdown period to you not feel we should have been contacted, even if it was just to check on Matthew’s well being?”
His studies became a huge concern for him, with Matthew telling teachers he was struggling with his motivation, sparking physics teacher Mr Stringer to use CPOMS to alert other staff to Matthew’s troubles and ask for one of the pastoral team to give him a call to check in on the youngster.
However, as this note was made very shortly after Mrs Fletcher had received the worrying email, no further action was taken to check in with Matthew.
Mrs Fletcher broke down crying as she explained that the email hadn’t concerned her at the time.
She said: “In my eyes he was just offloading, there’s a bit of swearing in it which he could do with me because we had that relationship. He told me he couldn’t concentrate for more than two minutes at a time and that he was already so behind and predicted bad grades.
“I explained that when we came back in September a lot of the students would be in the same boat and not to worry too much - and then told his teachers not to email him directly but to contact me if there were problems with his work.”
Neither of these notes were shared with his counsellor, Adele McGuinn, who had stopped her sessions with the youngster after he told her he was fine and wanted to wait until face-toface sessions resumed in September.
She admitted that she might have made another attempt to contact him if she’d been made aware of his true feelings.
Ms McGuinn came under fire from Matthew’s parents, after the court heard he had emailed her asking to come and see her during the morning break on September 9, 2020, the day he went missing.
She denied this request, and offered him an appointment during the last period of the day instead, which Matthew declined.
When asked whether Matthew’s request for help, which he had never made before, was a red flag to her, Ms McGuinn said: “It didn’t alarm me, I was more ‘oh look at Matthew asking for what he wants,’ he was being assertive.”
It was during this time, when the counselling appointment had been suggested, that Matthew was last seen alive, travelling towards the area where his body was found on September 10.
Just a few minutes after attempting to seek support from the pastoral office, which was empty at the time, Matthew attended his penultimate lesson at the school with Samuel Heald, ignoring the teacher’s attempt to greet him.
The physics teacher told the court that Matthew appeared much quieter than usual and had sat himself away from the other students - something he assumed was to comply with social distancing.
He did attempt to speak with the teenager once the lesson had finished, but he brushed past once again, ignoring Mr Heald’s attempts to speak with him, heading to his final lesson with Mr Stringer.
Mr Heald raised his concerns with Mrs Fletcher, before putting them on CPOMS for other teachers to keep an eye on him.
In his final lesson, Matthew appeared to be engaging with the work, asking Mr Stringer for help solving a physics problem as part of the work on a new topic being introduced to the class.
After class, Matthew left the school, and was last seen using public transport to get into the centre of Bury.
His body was tragically found by three teenagers the next day.
●●THE INQUEST CONTINUES.