The Bristol University of England has been asked to pay over £50,000 as damages for discriminating against a female student who committed suicide.
Natasha Abrahart, 20, was facing shyness and anxiety as she had to present a vast presentation of her work in front of many other students at the University.
The idea left her with huge anxiety, and she even told counsellors at the University in 2018 that she might commit suicide if he had to give that presentation.
A judgment was passed that stated the University had broken laws of disability discrimination in the way they treated her. Her parents said that the University did not take her fears seriously and threatened her to give her poor grades if she didn’t do that presentation. The second-year students of physics died at the age of 20.
On the day of Natasha’s Presentation, which she had to give in a 329-seat lecture theatre, she was found dead in her home in Park Street, Bristol.
The judge, in this case, found Bristol University accountable for multiple breaches of legal duties toward a female student who committed suicide in April 2018. The University was ordered to compensate the family for her funeral costs and give them £50,000 as damages.
The University said that it would take time to consider the verdict and said it could petition against the charges due to the ‘significant impact’ the decision would have on how universities support their students.
The female student, born in Nottingham, had been diagnosed with severe social anxiety disorder two months before the incident. Her parents stated the University did not take her fears seriously.
She had been a topper since the start. Still, at the beginning of her second year, in October 2017, university staff became aware of her condition that she was struggling with anxiety and panic attacks as part of her course involved her having to provide a presentation in front of fellow students.
The judge also said that there was nothing mentioned in the course that she had to give a face-to-face presentation in front of a large audience, and they could have allowed her present work through text, writing or recording.
Dr Robert and Mrs Margaret Abrahart, parents of, Natasha, brought the legal action against the University, stating they had failed to safeguard her and discriminated against her due to her disability.
After the final verdict was announced recently, her parents struggled to read the prepared statement,
“Today, 1,481 days after Natasha took her own life on the day of an examination she simply could not do, after years of protestations from the University that it did all it could to support her.”
“After having fought our way through an inquest and a civil trial, we eventually have the truth: The University of Bristol violated the law and exposed our daughter to months of wholly extreme psychological trauma as she watched her grades getting lower and her hopes for the future crush before her eyes,” stated her father, Robert Abrahart.
Mrs Abrahart, a retired psychological wellbeing practitioner, further added, “We hope that the Bristol Univesity will finally take its head out of the sand and realise that now is the time for a change.”
