New Town High School policies and guidelines under examination after boy’s death

A four-day inquest has opened into the death of “old soul” Harry Lampkin, a New Town High School teenager who died by suicide. What the coroner will examine.

New Town High School. Picture: Eddie Safarik

A four-day inquest has opened into the death of “old soul” Harry Lampkin, a New Town High School teenager who died by self harm.

The Hobart inquest, before Coroner Olivia McTaggart, opened on Tuesday and will examine the Mangalore boy’s death in February 2020.

It will address not only the circumstances of Harry’s death, but the guidelines, policies and subsequent reviews by his school and the education department in dealing with teens suffering suicidal ideation.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Letitia Fox, said he’d been with his family on the day in question and had appeared happy, with his loved ones having no concerns for his wellbeing.

However, Ms Fox also said Harry had been communicating in an online gaming chat platform, Discord, where he had talked about self-harm and ending his own life.

New Town High School. Picture: Eddie Safarik

She also said about two weeks before his death, Harry had sent photos to a friend depicting cuts on his arm.

The photos were seen by a school staffer who contacted the principal of the former all-boys New Town High School – but the principal said he’d never seen the email as it had “gone into his spam folder”.

Harry’s mother told the coroner that Harry was an outdoorsy boy who would vent by using his bow and arrow, Nerf gun and throwing knives at trees at the family’s rural property.

She said although Harry experienced some frustrations at school – including being punished with a detention in an instance where he was attacked by another student, and harassment from youths on the bus – she didn’t believe this had led to his death.

“Harry was a very kind-hearted boy. From the day he was born, he was very laid-back,” she said.

“Very often he would help me raise the orphan lambs, or whatever animals I brought home.

“He certainly was a comedian and he loved making people laugh.

“He was an old soul from a baby.”

The woman said while he’d expressed suicidal ideation on Discord, she believed his death was an experiment that had gone wrong.

“I don’t know if you live a different life in an online world, but he didn’t mean to do it … it wasn’t meant to happen,” she said.

“He spoke about what he was doing on the chat, but it was like he was in a different world.

“In my mind it was never suicide to me, it was an accident that he couldn’t get out of.”
New Town High School no longer exists as a boys’ school, and now instead forms part of the coeducational Hobart City High School.

The inquest continues.

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Originally published as New Town High School policies and guidelines under examination after boy’s death