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The distraught parents of an Italian teenager, Claudio Mandia, who died by suicide at a private boarding school in New York earlier this year, are suing the school over his wrongful death.
On February 17, 2022, Claudio Mandia committed suicide after being expelled for cheating on a math assignment at EF Academy in Westchester County. The suit, filed by Mandia’s parents, alleges that their son’s time in solitary confinement, where he was kept for nearly four days following the expulsion, contributed to his death.
On February 14, Mandia, just shy of his 18th birthday, was reportedly forced to move out of his dorm and into an isolated area where he waited for his family to get him.
The suit alleges wrongful death, negligence, false imprisonment, and emotional distress, among other charges, against the school, who were aware of his psychological issues triggered by the death of a family member that occurred shortly after he returned to the campus from a covid break.
Here are the events leading up to Claudio Mandia's suicide
In 2020, Claudio Mandia enrolled as a student at the elite E.F. Academy after being accepted to the school’s two-year International Baccalaureate Program. The school, whose tuition runs up to $66500, initially saw Mandia as a bright student who received relatively good grades, including an “A” in math.
The following year, while at home on winter break, Mandia was forced to stay in Italy after several family members contracted COVID-19. When Mandia was finally able to return to school, he found it immensely difficult to follow the curriculum as he had fallen behind on his coursework due to his extended absence from school.
The suit stated that less than two weeks after his return to campus, Mandia suffered the loss of a family member to Covid, which devolved his mental health, which was already precarious after witnessing the suicide attempt of another student who was also expelled and placed in solitary confinement.
The suit added that Mandia reportedly sought help from the school counselor, Chelsea Lovece, earlier after witnessing the suicide attempt of another student who was expelled and placed in solitary confinement. Lovece was also treating him following the family member’s death. However, the school never notified the teenager’s parents of his mental health issues.
Chelsea Lovece is reportedly one of several defendants named in the suit that alleges the counselor “deviated and/or departed from the accepted standard of social worker care.”
The lawsuit alleges the school ignored signs pointing towards Claudio Mandia's distress
According to the lawsuit, the day before Claudio Mandia was expected to leave the school, three staffers witnessed marks on his neck indicative of a previous suicide attempt. However, Mandia was kept in the “bare room” where the staffers brought all his meals.
The next day, Claudio’s younger sister, who was also a student at the school, asked Lovece to check the room as she was concerned about her brother’s health. However, Lovece told his sister that her brother was unresponsive after she had knocked on his door earlier that morning, leading her to believe that he was asleep. He was found dead later that day.
The lawsuit stated:
“It was painfully foreseeable that forcing [Claudio] into solitary confinement, malnourishing him, and inadequately supervising him after delivering the life-altering news that he would be expelled – all while he was enduring other hardships that EF Academy knew about and was treating him for – could result in his tragic death.”
In a statement, the school told NBC News that the suit contained several inaccuracies and rejected the parent’s claim that their son was indeed kept under solitary confinement.
