Thursday 7 July 2022 04:27 AM Cohen Fink's family sue WA education minister after he took his own life, claim ... trends now
The family of a teenage boy who took his own life in his final year of school is suing their state education minister, claiming the public school failed in its duty of care.
Cohen Fink, 17, died on June 4, 2019, three days after he completed his mid-year exams at Warnbro Community High School in Perth's south, as he battled with anxiety and depression.
His older brother Jaidyn, then 24, and sister Kylah, then 22, found him unconscious and desperately performed CPR as his father listened on the phone 1,000km away after he got a panicked call from his wife Pamela.
The whole family has now lodged a writ of summons in the District Court claiming damages for psychiatric injury, nervous shock and loss caused by wrongful death, The West Australian reported.
Cohen had previously struggled with his schoolwork but the family said only after he died did they discover his mid-year exams were left largely incomplete, the pages covered in doodles and strange messages.
Cohen had dreams of becoming a pilot and first manned a plane when he was just 15 years old (pictured with his parents)
To one question on his chemistry paper, Cohen wrote: 'Because I chose that as my answer so just deal with it. I don't even care if I get it wrong because oh well. I already know I'm failing this test.'
His teachers had previously expressed concern about his answers to other teachers in emails but it is not known if this was escalated, with his parents claiming there was no communication with them.
They only learned of his exam performance after battling to get documents under Freedom of Information laws.
Their claim accuses Education Minister Sue Ellery of breaching her duty of care with the family alleging Cohen was not provided with mental health support at school.
It also said her 'agents' - the staff at the school - allegedly failed to deliver an adequate response to mental health concerns disclosed by Cohen that were 'otherwise evident'.
'It was obvious he was in severe mental distress... He was coming home from his exams telling us that he thought he did okay... We had no idea,' his parents said of the exam papers
Cohen's mid-year Grade 12 exams, some of the most important in high school, were barely completed and were covered in doodles and strange messages (pictured)
'Both the family and I have grave concerns about their response to Cohen's fairly obvious distress and calls for help,' the family's lawyer, negligence expert Julian Johnson told the paper.
Cohen had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and was seeing a psychologists outside of school for about a year beforehand.
'If we had been told (about him not completing exams), we might have had the opportunity to be able to get Cohen the support he needed,' Ms Fink said.
Cohen told his parents he thought the exams went 'fine'.
Despite his mental health struggles, Cohen was an active teenager.
He wanted to become a pilot after achieving his first solo flight at age 15 and joined the Air Force Cadets for two years.
He also had a girlfriend and successfully earned his P-plates less than a month before he died.
