The Heerlen police arranged extra protection for the Grotius College and its school grounds. The College’s director, teachers and students received threats in response to the suicide of 15-year-old student Tharukshan Selvam, AD reports.

Tharukshan died during the early hours of Sunday morning. His family published his suicide note, in which he described how he was being bullied at school. He was also being harassed by anonymous social media accounts, believed to be the work of his class mates.

The Sri Lankan’ teen’s story provoked numerous threats and death treats addressed to the director of Grotius College, several teachers and students. The condolence register the school opened on Wednesday was flooded with responses from across the country. “You should be deeply ashamed, students and school”, “Bullies of Tharukshan: you should be deeply ashamed”, “How could this happen?” and “This could have been avoided”, were just some of the responses. 

Frank Schings, director of school organization LVO Parkstad, under which Grotius College falls, announced that the circumstances of the boy’s suicide will be investigated. Later on Wednesday the school leaders announced in a press conference that they have asked the Inspectorates for both Education and Youth Care to investigate what happened, according to NU.nl. Heerlen Mayor Ralf Krewinkel will also investigate. The Mayor’s investigation will also look into the role of youth care and other health institutions in what happened to Tharukshan.

It is known that both school and municipality had contact with the Selvam family. According to Schings at the press conference, a municipal expertise center first spoke to Tharukshan on December 5th due to the bullying. After that the 15-year-old boy spoke to aid workers on December 28th. 

-nltimes
-Agencies