The judge investigating the parents’ complaint against the Irlandesas de Loreto school has decided to archive the case. The 14-year-old girl who took her own life on October 14 and the family accuses the center where the teenager was studying of not having activated the anti-bullying protocol, despite the fact that they had informed the management that their daughter was suffering bullying by three colleagues from the center. The magistrate follows the criteria of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, which also requested the provisional dismissal of the case, and understands that although this mechanism “is undoubtedly effective,” “it does not mean that if it had been adopted, the minor’s will to make the decision she made would have been hindered.”
The parents of the young woman from Seville for understanding that those responsible had committed an alleged crime of homicide due to recklessness, mental injuries due to recklessness and degrading treatment committed through commission by omission.
In its letter, the Public Ministry indicates that the school became aware of a possible situation of bullying on September 1, 2025, when Sandra’s mother gave the management team a report issued by the psychologist who had treated her during the summer and in which “the minor’s statements about teasing and derogatory comments by a group of classmates and self-harm were recorded” and in which it was indicated that the minor presented “an anxious-depressive psychological condition that was affecting significantly to their quality of life.” The young woman’s family had reported that harassing behavior had already been observed in the previous school year, but the Prosecutor’s Office report, issued on May 5, considers them “specific situations that were dealt with internally.”
In the list of facts, the juvenile prosecutor recognizes that the school did not formalize the activation of protocols, but that “certain measures to protect the minor were adopted with separation of classes of the alleged aggressors, indication of mental health referral, designation of reference people in the center, instructions to the teaching staff to be attentive and coordination and contacts with the psychologist.” “There was action on the part of the center when the possible situation of bullying was detected,” concludes the Prosecutor’s Office, which emphasizes that “apparently, it had a positive impact on the minor,” and is supported by a report from the psychologist who treated Sandra.
The Public Ministry maintains that “the fact that the educational center did not formally activate the bullying protocol and the suicide or self-lysis risk prevention protocol does not mean that, had it been adopted, the fatal outcome of the minor’s death would have been avoided,” so a “causal relationship cannot be established between the lack of activation of said protocols and the minor’s death.” The Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office also argues that the alleged harassment of the young woman from Seville also took place outside the school, an “external environment in which in no case could the protection measures to be implemented by the educational center have reached.”
The head of the Court of Instruction number 7 of Seville bases his resolution on these reasonings. In his ruling, the judge maintains that the school and those responsible “adopted measures to combat the situation of harassment”, but that they were not required to “control the minor at all times to prevent her from taking her life”, to remember that Sandra committed suicide at home and outside of school hours, where the duty of surveillance of the center’s teaching team is not enough.
The judge concludes, in line with the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, that “the harassment protocol is undoubtedly effective, but this does not mean that, if it had been adopted, the minor’s will to make the decision she made would have been hindered.”
The first to verify that this protocol had not been activated and that the situation of alleged harassment to which the minor was subjected had not been brought to the attention of the Inspection, opened an administrative file to determine whether to eliminate the educational agreement that it maintains with the Catholic center. The opening of the criminal investigation left this procedure on hold pending its outcome.
People with suicidal behavior and their family members can call 024, a helpline of the Ministry of Health. You can also contact the Hope Telephone (717 003 717), dedicated to preventing this problem. In cases that affect minors, the Anar Foundation has the telephone number 900 20 20 10 and the chat on the page https://www.anar.org/de Ayuda a Children y Adolescentes.
