The form teacher of 14-year-old at a north London school who is believed to have killed herself after being bullied described her as a “brilliant student” who seemed “reasonably content”.
Mia Janin, a year 10 pupil at the Jewish Free School (JFS) in Kenton, north-west London, was found dead at her family home in Harrow on March 12 2021.
Her father, Mariano Janin, has said he believes she was cyber-bullied by other pupils at JFS.
Teacher Alistair Davey told Barnet Coroners’ court on Wednesday he was unaware of any bullying of Mia including through social media.
Coroner Tony Murphy asked teacher Alistair Davey if he had seen any indication Mia being bullied to which he replied “No, I did not.”
The also coroner also asked him “Had you ever heard her being called any names?” to which he also replied “no”.
The teacher said although she was not one of the “popular” group in the class she was not isolated.
He said: “I did not see her as isolated … she wasn’t one of the popular crowd cracking jokes but she was not sat by herself.”
He said in earlier evidence “she seemed reasonably content”.
Describing Mia to the court he said: “She was a brilliant student held in high regard by teachers” adding he had “no concerns”.
The teacher said he was not aware of boys at JFS sharing information on social media about some girls in the class.
“If I had I would have gone to the head of year on the assumption they would investigate,” he told the court.
In the statements, her friends said that Mia was bullied by other pupils at the school, and that their friendship group was nicknamed the “suicide squad” in the months leading up toher death.
They said that one of Mia’s TikToks was shared to a Snapchat group chat run by male pupils at JFS, where they made fun of her.
One child said the boys used the group chat to share nude photos of girls.
The child added: “They took screenshots of girls’ faces on social media and made fun of them.
“They shared a video of Mia’s TikTok and made fun of her.”
They said the boys also photoshopped girls’ faces onto the bodies of pornography performers.
“They used girls faces on porn stars’ bodies to upset us,” they said.
The child said that they had a conversation with Mia the day before she died.
They said that Mia asked: “If you died would people care about you the next day?”
“We laughed it off, that was all she said, it was just in normal conversation,” the child said.
Another child said that the TikTok video had been posted by Mia the night before she returned to school after the end of Covid restrictions.
The inquest heard that police believe that the TikTok was posted on March 10, as she returned to school on March 11.
The child said that Mia had received lots of negative comments on the TikTok video from other pupils at JFS.
“Mia said she was fine, but I don’t think that she was fine,” she said.
Mr Janin told the inquest that his daughter asked if she could move school after coming home on March 11.
The inquest heard that his wife Marisa, who has since died, told Mia she could be homeschooled for the rest of the school year, and that they would look into moving her to a new school after.
Mia then went to bed. Hours later, she was dead.
The inquest heard that Marisa had expressed concerns to the school that she not been invited to any of the Bar Mitzvah’s of any of the children in her class and was not fitting in.
She had said in evidence heard in court that this and her lack of acceptance left her feeling “sad lonely and isolated”.
The coroner said that there was no evidence that any images or videos involving Mia had been shared in the group chat, except for the TikTok.
The inquest heard that Rabbi Cohen, former deputy headteacher at JFS, told the boys to close down the group after Mia’s death.
JFS’s position is that the school was not aware of the existence of the group chat before Mia’s death.
The inquest continues.
