Parents Sue Penn Alleging Negligence In Daughter's Suicide

PHILADELPHIA — The parents of a Wharton School student who committed suicide in 2016 are suing the school, alleging that their 21-year-old daughter's cries for help were gone unnoticed, according to reports. Ao "Olivia" Kong was hit by a Market-Frankford Line train at the 40th street station.

It was April 11 at around 7 a.m. when Kong was killed. A surveillance video shows her on the platform, eventually walking along the tracks into the dark tunnel where she was hit.

Kong had been taking a heavy course load at the time on the recommendation of an academic adviser, the Inquirer reported. She had fallen ill twice in this time period.

On March 30, 2017, the second time Kong got sick that semester, the Inquirer reported, she went to the Student Health Center. With a fever of 102.1 and a pulse of 153, she said she had been worried about her academics and was anxious and stressed, according to the parents' complaint.

Kong had reported to the school's psychological services that she had been having suicidal thoughts. Her family's attorney claims that, between Kong and her peers, university employees received nine warnings of her suicidal thoughts.

Carol Nelson, the Kongs' attorney, said the lawsuit's purpose is “to shine a light on the really dreadful job that one of our most elite local institutions, the University of Pennsylvania, has done on the critical issue of student suicide,” WHYY reported. She described the Wharton School's mental health response problems as "systemic."

Employees of the school's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) "intentionally disregarded, completely ignored and/or utterly failed to understand Olivia's repeated pleas for help and specific statements that she was feeling hopeless and considering suicide," the Inquirer reported.

The description of the surveillance footage taken before Kong's suicide is jarring:

“She is alone and in her pajamas. She is tugging at her hair and staring at her hands. After two trains pass, Olivia flops onto a platform bench. After a third train comes and goes, she gets up and begins walking along the platform’s yellow textured caution strip toward the tunnel; with each step she moves closer and closer to the platform’s edge. Near the mouth of the tunnel, she crouches down and then sits with her legs dangling off the platform. Within seconds, she jumps onto the train tracks and begins walking along the tracks into the dark tunnel.”

The lawsuit alleges negligence, wanton and willful misconduct, reckless disregard and wrongful death, and is seeking more than $50,000 in damages, according to the Inquirer. It also says Kong was the tenth Penn student to die by suicide in three years, the Inquirer reported, and four more students have died by suicide since.

Xianguo Kong and Zhao Lin, Kong's parents, moved from China to Philadelphia when Olivia was 9.

See a detailed account of Kong's dealings with Penn's psychological services at the Daily Pennsylvanian

Article image via Google Street View screen grab