The family of an exchange student has filed a lawsuit against his private school after the teen ended his life days after school officials placed him in solitary confinement.
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Claudio Mandia was found unresponsive in his dorm room at the EF Academy in Thornwood on February 17, three days after being placed in solitary confinement. The incident took place days before his 18th birthday. The family’s lawsuit claims Claudio was expelled from the school after cheating on a math assignment. As punishment, school officials forced the teen to stay alone despite knowing he was dealing with personal issues, which affected his academic performance.
‘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,’
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The boarding school said in a statement that all claims surrounding Claudio’s death were untrue.
“The narrative that is shared in the legal filing is not accurate or based on fact. We are confident that the legal process will allow us to provide and prove a fact-based legal case recounting what actually transpired.”
Claudio attended the prestigious private school for two years as part of the International Baccalaureate Program after showing interest in studying abroad. He had plans to return home to Italy to attend university. His parents said his strongest subject was math, and he earned ‘A’ grades from the previous semesters. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Claudio’s school performance was depleted after learning some of his relatives contracted the virus in Battipaglia.
‘Then, less than two weeks after his delayed return to campus, [Claudio] suffered the unexpected loss of a close family member, which upset him terribly and caused him to seek counseling from EF Academy’s in-house social worker Chelsea Lovece. EF Academy’s implementation of its solitary confinement protocol, combined with its grossly negligent – and indeed blatantly abusive – handling of [Claudio] known risk factors, was truly outrageous and warrants the imposition of punitive damages to ensure such conduct does not ever happen again.’
According to the Daily Mail, the lawsuit said another Italian student expelled from the school in 2020 attempted suicide in their dorm room.