TRAGIC

Parents Sue University of Pennsylvania Over Daughter’s Suicide

Lawsuit claims the university failed to address her repeated pleas for help.

The parents of a University of Pennsylvania junior who killed herself in 2016 filed a lawsuit against the school Tuesday, claiming “that campus professionals failed to respond appropriately” to their daughter’s “repeated” attempts to seek help, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Ao “Olivia” Kong died in April 2016 when she was struck by a train. Kong, an undergrad in the Wharton School of Business, was encouraged by her academic adviser to take on a heavy course load, but she started falling behind after getting sick twice—which made her “stressed and anxious,” according to the complaint. She reported having suicidal thoughts to the school’s mental health services on “multiple occasions,” court papers allege. The suit claims that the school “intentionally disregarded, completely ignored and/or utterly failed to understand Olivia’s repeated pleas for help and specific statements that she was feeling hopeless and considering suicide.” The parents are seeking more than $50,000 in damages. UPenn told the Inquirer that it could not comment on pending litigation.