Daily Mail
· collected 2026-09-23 · by Vivek Chaudhary, Emily Hall, Mario Laghos
Lauren Jackson, a 17-year-old A-Level student at Richard Huish College in Somerset, took her own life by hanging herself in a toilet cubicle during school hours in February. The inquest revealed she had struggled with mental health issues since age 14, including panic attacks and OCD, and had been prescribed antidepressants. Despite this support, Lauren died two days after being found unresponsive at the college. Her parents described her behavior as normal leading up to the incident, with no apparent warning signs.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-23,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
An A-level student took her own life in the toilets at her sixth form college after struggling with her mental health throughout her teens, an inquest has heard.
asserted
inquest → take → teens
Lauren Jackson, 17, appeared to be looking forward to the future, beginning driving lessons and visiting various universities where she hoped to study.
asserted
she → appear → universities
But she hanged herself in a cubicle at the beginning of the school day at Richard Huish College in Somerset in February.
asserted
she → hang → February
PE teacher Lisa Wren described the moment she found Lauren, initially calling out, then banging the cubicle door, and eventually peering over it, where she saw the teenager unresponsive.
asserted
teenager → describe → it
Other staff members rushed to help, and they cut Lauren down before beginning CPR and phoning the emergency services.
asserted
they → rush → services
They were swiftly followed by an air ambulance which landed on playing fields at the college near Taunton, the inquest at the Old Municipal Buildings in Taunton heard this week.
asserted
inquest → follow → Taunton
Lauren was rushed to intensive care but a scan revealed that she had suffered a hypoxic brain injury and doctors advised her parents that there was a high chance she wouldn’t survive.
asserted
she → rush → parents
She died two days later with her family by her bedside.
asserted
family → die → bedside
Lauren Jackson, 17, took her own life in the toilets at her sixth form college after struggling with her mental health throughout her teens
She hanged herself in a cubicle at the beginning of the school day at Richard Huish College in Somerset in February
Lauren’s mother, Estelle Jackson, described her shocked reaction after she received the phone call from the college at 9.15 am informing her that her daughter had been found unresponsive.
asserted
daughter → take → her
Mrs Jackson said that after hearing this news, she tried to start walking but her legs ‘stopped working’ and she fell to the floor, before a colleague picked her up and then drove her to the college.
asserted
colleague → say → college
From there, Mrs Jackson, joined by her husband Graham, accompanied Lauren to the hospital, where they remained for 48 hours until her death, her written statement said.
asserted
statement → join → death
Mrs Jackson said that her daughter had become increasingly insular during her teens, rarely talked with her, and ‘did not view us as parents.’
asserted
daughter → say → parents
But she said Lauren’s behaviour had not seemed out of the ordinary in the days leading up to her death: she had booked driving lessons and appeared to be planning for a university future after completing her A Levels.
asserted
she → say → Levels
Medical records showed that Lauren had recorded mental health concerns from the age of 14, visiting her GP three years before her death to report experiencing panic attacks, OCD and intrusive thoughts.
She also revealed she had previously self-harmed.
asserted
she → show → attacks
Lauren was referred to mental health support and would go on to have some 33 meetings with mental health and children’s services professionals.
asserted
Lauren → refer → professionals
She was offered therapy and later prescribed the antidepressant sertraline initially, at 25 mg a day, with the dose eventually raised to 150mg.
asserted
dose → offer → mg
While Lauren initially reported that the medication was having a positive effect, by January this year, a month before her death, she told her key worker that its effect was diminishing.
asserted
effect → report → worker
In a face-to-face meeting she was ‘shivering, crying and feeling unsafe’.
asserted
she → shiver → meeting
Dr Arjuna Pattapola listed Lauren’s conditions: she was suffering from emotional dysregulation, attachment difficulties, dysregulated sleeping, dysregulated eating, panic attacks, psychosomatic complaints, and was having difficulty interacting with both her peers and her family.
Lauren also said that strange things had been happening to her, including a bar of soap apparently being placed in her bowl of porridge.
Medical records showed that Lauren had recorded mental health concerns from the age of 14, visiting her GP three years before her death to report experiencing panic attacks, OCD and intrusive thoughts
The college where Lauren was a pupil is one of the country’s only state-run sixth form colleges to offer a boarding option and educates 2,250 students a year.
Matthew Nolan, the college’s safeguarding lead, who joined the efforts to save her life, said Lauren had talked about wanting to die, sometimes describing how she would go about it.
asserted
she → list → it
‘Lauren would regularly attend my office, crying, shaking and suggesting she was struggling,’ he said, in a written statement.
asserted
he → attend → statement
Dr Daniel Shuttleworth, a consulting manager in the Intensive Care Unit who oversaw Lauren’s care, said that while her heart was successfully restarted, she failed to respond to external stimuli, and ultimately failed to regain consciousness.
asserted
she → consult → consciousness
He gave the cause of death as a hypoxic brain injury caused by suspension.
Following her death, one of Lauren’s friends revealed that she had confided in her that she had been sexually assaulted as a young child.
asserted
she → give → child
But police then investigated Lauren’s diary entries and found two separate entries which undermined the claims.
uncertain
which → investigate → claims
She had written: ‘I have suppressed feelings of guilt as I feel I have lied about being sexually abused as a cry for attention.’
asserted
I → write → attention
And later: ‘I have never been sexually abused.’
asserted
I → abuse → ?
Recording a verdict of suicide, assistant coroner Vanessa McKinlay said that Lauren’s death had been an unimaginable loss to her family and friends, the staff of her college and to her fellow students, telling the court that the death would be felt far and wide.
asserted
death → record → court
Ms McKinlay said Lauren had struggled to engage with therapy, despite regularly attending sessions with her key worker, and had met with psychologists on multiple occasions.
asserted
Lauren → say → occasions
‘No one could have seen what Lauren was going to do on that day,’ she added.
uncertain
she → see → day
The Aporia
