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JFS teachers ordered pupils to delete social media accounts five days after Mia's death, inquest hears
The year 10 student asked her parents if she could move school the evening before her death
June 8, 2022 14:47
The year 10 student asked her parents if she could move school the evening before her death
June 8, 2022 14:47Pupils at JFS were ordered to delete Snapchat accounts by teachers five days after 14-year-old Mia Janin took her life, a coroner’s court has heard.
The extraordinary development comes days after her father had said he fears she may have been bullied by other pupils at the school before her death on 12 March last year.
At the opening of the inquest in Barnet, north London, on Wednesday, the family’s barrister, Lily Lewis, raised relatives’ concerns over the data deletion.
Miss Lewis said: “The police have shared a powerpoint presentation with us which shows that many pupils at the school were in a Snapchat group at the time of Mia’s death.
“The pupils had their accounts deleted on 17 March, 2021, by teachers at the school.
“There is concern within Mia’s family that the school seems to have deleted this data. We would like to know if there are any records held by the school of this.”
Detective Inspector Gail Steele, leading the Metropolitan Police investigation into Mia’s death, told the hearing that teachers had instructed pupils to delete Snapchat accounts.
Under new laws brought in shortly before Mia’s death, schools had been given powers to delete social media accounts and records, the inquest heard.
Andrew Walker, senior coroner for north London, directed DI Steele to ask JFS staff to make any records of the deleted messages available to her officers.
Mr Walker added: “Instruct the school not to remove or destroy any records. Safeguard that data.”
He also directed the detective to ask technological companies providing social media platforms, including Snapchat, Whatsapp and Yolo, to hand over any messages it held from the deleted accounts.
Mr Walker also asked DI Steele to “undertake enquiries to notify tech companies that the needs exists to keep information”.
Miss Lewis said the coroner’s directions were “helpful”. She added that the messages shared by the pupil group at JFS, the oldest Jewish school in Europe, could be “very significant”.
Miss Lewis raised family concerns that so far “only two adults witnesses” - a rabbi and a teacher at JFS - had been contacted by Met Police officers.
The rabbi, she said, had made no statement to the police. “It’s important and significant that we understand why that is,” she added.
Mr Walker adjourned the inquest until 15 September. DI Steele assured the coroner the investigation into Mia’s death would be completed by then.
Earlier this week, Mia’s father Mariano Janin told the Sunday Times: "This whole experience has been a nightmare that is too horrible to explain. Every day feels as though I am living in slow motion.”
He implored: “Parents with information — please take it to the coroner. We need to know what happened for the sake of other children as well as for Mia.”
The year 10 pupil reportedly asked her parents if she could move school the evening before her death. She had sent a voice message to a friend ahead of the first day back in which she said she was “mentally preparing herself to get bullied by him and all of his boyfriends”.
Mr Janin also told the newspaper he knows Mia logged into a social media app just hours before her death, but does not know what she saw, sent or received.
New school head Dr David Moody said after the hearing: “Following on from comments made to the Sunday Times who recently ran an article on Mia, the school is unable to comment about an ongoing police investigation.
"As the new Headteacher of JFS, I am confident that all possible information has been made available to the police to support them in reaching a conclusion.
"OFSTED has recently graded JFS as a good school and were pleased with the sustained changes enacted by both Governors and the new leadership team."
If you need support or are supporting someone who needs help, visit jamiuk.org/get-support/ or contact 020 8458 2223. You can also go to samaritans.org or call 116 123.