An Italian family sued an elite Westchester County boarding school where their 17-year-old son killed himself, accusing them of keeping their son in solitary confinement after being expelled for cheating on an assignment.
Exchange student Claudio Mandia was found dead in a room at EF Academy in Thornwood in February, having hung himself on the eve of his 18th birthday.
Mandia had just been expelled from the elite school for cheating on a math assignment and was forced by school officials to stay in a room alone.
The lawsuit was filed in Westchester County Supreme Court on Friday by his father, Mauro Mandia, and another representative of the boy’s estate.
The lawsuit alleges that school officials contributed to Claudio’s death by putting him in solitary confinement while he was emotionally vulnerable, despite knowing that Claudio had been dealing with personal issues that had impacted his school 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,” the lawsuit states.
Accusations of wrongful death, negligence, false imprisonment and emotional distress, among other charges against EF Academy, four school officials, its parent company and 20 other unnamed defendants are being claimed. Claudio’s family is demanding punishment for the school as well as compensation.
A spokesperson for the school said, “The filling contained multiple inaccurate statements and we deny the claim that Claudio was placed in solitary confinement. 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.”
Mandia and Elisabetta Benesatto enrolled their son at EF Academy, which has a whopping tuition of $66,500 per year for students who live full-time on campus, in the fall of 2020 after he expressed interest in an international academic experience before attending a university in Italy.
He was accepted to the school’s two-year International Baccalaureate Program.
During Mandia’s first year, he received relatively good grades, including an “A” in math and was noted by his teachers as “having a good sense of humor,” “helpful” and “a very good math student”.
However, in November 2020, another Italian student who was expelled from the academy also attempted suicide, according to the suit, which notes Claudio was not involved in that incident.
The following year, trouble began for Mandia. He was forced to stay at home in Battipaglia, Italy after the school’s winter break after several family members contracted COVID-19.
“This caused Claudio to fall behind in his academic work, and when Claudio did return to campus after being quarantined, he was under a lot of pressure to try and catch up,” the suit alleges. “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.”
While Mandia was seeking mental health help, the school expelled him for plagiarism and placed him in solitary confinement on February 14 until his parents arrived to pick him up.
While he was locked up away from all other students and staff, his meals were delivered right to his room, where trash began to pile up.
“Claudio screamed and cried for help while held in solitary confinement. EF Academy and the individual Defendants callously ignored him,” the suit says.
The day before he was expected to leave the school, he encountered three staffers with visible marks on his neck that indicated a previous suicide attempt.
The following morning, Claudio’s younger sister, who was also a student at the school, then pleaded with Lovece to check on her brother.
Lovece told the girl that she had knocked on his door earlier that morning, and that she believed he was asleep when he didn’t answer.
However, when she returned and checked on him again later that morning, he was found dead.
“EF Academy’s implementation of its solitary confinement protocol, combined with its grossly negligent and indeed blatantly abusive handling of Claudio’s known risk factors, was truly outrageous and warrants the imposition of punitive damages to ensure such conduct does not ever happen again,” the suit concluded.
