$750G to mom of suicide teen
THE MOTHER of a distraught 17-yearold student who walked out of school and drowned herself in the Hudson River three years ago has received a $750,000 settlement from the city.
Omotayo Adeoye killed herself after Eva Malikova, a German instructor at the elite High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, accused her of cheating on a practice test.
Before handing her belongings to a stranger and entering the water, Adeoye (photo below) wrote a note on a Germanlanguage quiz in May 2014.
“What am I doing? Why am I doing it? This is not me. I’m losing my hard earned credibility for some meaningless quiz. I am better than this. This is beyond stupid,” the teen wrote, papers submitted in the case show.
On the back of the quiz, she chillingly added, “I just want to go away forever on the bottom of the river.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James d’Auguste wrote last week that the settlement was “an excellent outcome” given the “serious legal obstacles” facing Adeoye’s mother, Mounsurat Adeoye.
Her lawsuit had alleged that Malikova “publicly shamed and humiliated” her daughter and that staff failed to follow proper protocol for a student with suicidal thoughts.
Omotayo became suicidal after Malikova called out the student for looking at her cell phone during the quiz, saying, “You are only hurting yourself if you cheat,” sources said at the time.
School employees saw the note but failed to prevent the South Bronx student from leaving the school, the suit said. Staff was also aware of the brilliant but troubled student’s past suicide attempt and other mental health struggles, papers charged.
Witnesses who saw Adeoye walk into the river said it appeared she did not know how to swim.
“All the fishermen were yelling for help and telling this woman to come out,” one witness, Madelyn Arias, told the Daily News at the time.
An inquiry by city investigators cleared school staff of any wrongdoing two months after the suicide. The Education Department declined to comment on the settlement. Malikova is still teaching at the school. “The loss of a child is something no family should endure. Under the circumstances presented in this tragic case, the settlement approved by the Court is a fair resolution of the legal matter and in the best interests of the parties,” a Law Department spokesman said. The High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College was ranked No. 3 in U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 list of the city’s best high schools. The school is located on CCNY’s campus, giving students a preview of college life. A call to Mounsurat Adeoye’s attorney was
not returned.