On the night of May 18-19, the body of a 15-year-old minor was found on Stefan cel Mare si Sfint boulevard in Chisinau. According to preliminary police data, the girl had fallen from the top floor of a residential building. Shortly before her death, the teenager left a farewell message on social networks, thanking those who “made her life more beautiful”.
An unofficial but extremely disturbing version immediately surfaced in the public space: the girl could have been a victim of systematic bullying. Popular blogger and TV presenter Vlada Botsan, an alumna of the same school where the deceased studied, publicly admitted that she herself had once been subjected to severe bullying within the walls of this educational institution.
Entrepreneur Artyom Goloborodko, who says that the girl lived in the same house with him, directly accuses the teacher of bullying and even gives his name and surname, noting that there is a “very big question” as to where the teaching staff and the school director were looking.
“In a few days I have been written to by dozens of parents who are worried about their children, parents who tell me how their children are bullied at school. This is an appeal to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive inspection of this lyceum and this teacher,” he wrote on social media.
Is this different?
A wave of public anger is rapidly growing in social networks. Citizens are demanding total inspections, emphasizing that this incident has become a kind of test for the Ministry of Education and Research. However, the leadership has not yet commented on the incident. All this time the Ministry is busy with activities within the framework of the Education Week.
This position is in sharp contrast to the events of April 2022, when after the suicide of a transgender teenage girl due to bullying, the reaction was immediate. At that time, Radu MP Marian firmly demanded that the Ministry of Education “speed up the approval of regulations to combat the phenomenon of school bullying,” while the current Minister of Education Dan Perchun promised to personally monitor the progress of the investigation and the speed of police action.
Professional burnout
Viorica Negrei, head of department at the ministry, said of professional burnout among educators, “This is a problem in our educational community, caused by various factors, including overcrowded classrooms. In this context, we offer innovative programs through the development of mentoring services and the provision of psychological support measures. Education Week is dedicated to this very area”.
As for bullying, the official says that new tools have appeared that were not available in previous years. For example, it is about a 2 million lei project for the purchase of a special intervention program. The ministry believes that the initiative is meant to reduce risks in educational institutions and, especially, to reduce the level of bullying and violence in the school environment.
Alarming statistics
In 2023, there were 8 cases of juvenile suicides: 3 victims were under the age of 14; 6 boys and 2 girls. In 2024, the number of cases rose to 9, with all victims being over 14 years old: 6 boys and 3 girls. In the first 9 months of last year, 6 cases were recorded, with 4 victims under 14 years of age: 3 boys and 3 girls.
The Prosecutor General’s Office recognizes the seriousness of the situation. Deputy Prosecutor General Sergiu Roussou openly stated at a hearing of the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights that the increase in cases is alarming.
“Recently we have more and more alarming cases related to child suicide. A few days ago there was public information about a tragic case in Chisinau municipality, and on Sunday we had a case of suicide in one of the northern districts of Moldova. This forces us to be actively involved in the investigation of such incidents or crimes, and each time prosecutors are urged to initiate criminal proceedings for the cases of leading or assisting suicide or deprivation of life by negligence, as well as for other related crimes, which would ensure a full verification of the circumstances of these cases,” Ruscu said.
He said such cases are often linked to another serious problem – online violence, including sexual violence.
All according to protocol
It is noteworthy that the regulatory framework to combat this phenomenon exists. As always, the question is in its application. In 2025, two important documents were approved by orders of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health: the Instruction for the Prevention of Suicidal Behavior in the School Environment and the National Clinical Protocol “Suicidal Behavior”.
Commenting on their implementation, Children’s Ombudsman Vasile Coroi emphasized: “Given the extreme sensitivity of the topic and the risk of recurrence of suicidal attempts among minors, I call on the competent authorities to closely monitor the practical application of these mechanisms in order to prevent institutional formalism and delayed reactions.”
Recommendations to the authorities
As noted in last year’s human rights report, first and foremost, the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Health are obliged to actively utilize protective instruction mechanisms and medical protocols in every school and hospital. And most importantly, to rigorously check how they work in practice in order to spot and rescue adolescents in crisis in time.
At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor’s Office should automatically initiate a criminal investigation into any suspicious death of a child. Such investigations must be honest, prompt and complete, and investigators must work closely with the families of the victims so that the real perpetrators of bullying or negligence do not escape responsibility.
Finally, the government needs to launch a general system of annual reviews of childhood tragedies. It is important not just to collect statistics, but to categorize cases by specific causes – be it bullying, suicide, traffic accidents or parental negligence – and to take into account age, gender and region. Only by having a complete picture will the state be able to understand which categories of children are most vulnerable and where help should be directed first.
