TRIGGER WARNING: Death, suicide.
A first-year student living on residence at Carleton’s Prescott House has died by suicide, the Charlatan has learned.
Greg Aulenback, Carleton’s strategic initiatives manager, said the student died “of a sudden death off-campus” on the weekend of Jan. 26.
He said the Ottawa Police Services (OPS) first gave the university notice about the student’s death that weekend.
“We have been in contact with the family and the students, faculty and staff that are directly affected by this terrible tragedy,” Aulenback said in an email. “We are committed to supporting those affected during this difficult time.”
According to an email retrieved by the Charlatan that was sent out by Brad Martin, the residence manager for Prescott and Leeds House, an urgent floor meeting was held Jan. 28—a day after residence managers learned about the incident.
“There is something that we need to inform your floor about, so it is important for you to attend this meeting,” Martin wrote to students living on the second floor of Prescott House, asking them to meet in their multi-purpose room that evening.
Jordan Bolton-Lockhart, a first-year psychology student who lives on the same floor as the student, said she immediately knew something was off when she walked into the meeting.
“It was a kind of an odd feeling. It was awkward because no one knew what was happening and what they were there for,” she said.
Bolton-Lockhart said Martin and the other managers informed them of the student’s death and asked them to stay back if they had any questions.
She said a strong focus was placed on mental health issues that might arise for some students.
“I didn’t stay back, and immediately after the meeting, I just went back to my room and sat there in complete silence because, you know, he was in the room right next to me,” she said. “We shared a wall.”
Bolton-Lockhart added that the second floor of Prescott is particularly quiet, which she said was probably why no one heard about his death until they were called into the meeting.
“We tend to stick to ourselves on our floor because we have our own suites, and so to my knowledge, no one’s really done anything about [the student’s] death since it happened—we haven’t had any open talks, discussions or put up posters, or done anything since,” she said.
Another student, Gillian Peebles, who lived on the student’s floor, said the incident caused her a lot of guilt.
“I think all of us feel at least a little bit guilty because we all kept thinking ‘what if?’” she said, “Like what if we were closer, and what if we all actually maybe could do something to prevent this from happening?”
Peebles said this incident came at “a particularly crazy time” with a large fire on campus and false alerts about an active attacker being sent out.
She said that’s why she thought the meeting was about these other occurrences when she first received Martin’s email.
“We were all super quiet when they told us, and I didn’t know him personally. So, when they told us, it was, as they say, just dead silent—we were all completely shocked,” she said.
Peebles added that the student’s death “hit close to home,” especially given her own personal struggles with depression and anxiety.
“I think the hardest thing about being a first-year student in residence is that you can never really get away from school,” she said.
“Communities help though—just having a support system and having someone to talk to is important.”
“In all honesty, every time I walked down the hall, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to be able to spot him. You know, we often end up just going back to our rooms and sleeping our long days off—we never know what happens to the people just a few walls away from us,” she added.
She said that this incident “has shaken” her floor a lot about the impact of suicides and encouraging help-seeking behaviour, but that facilities at Carleton “are not always accessible for everyone.”
For Bolton-Lockhart, her neighbour’s death has left her thinking about images she remembers of interactions with him briefly at the start of the academic year “when everyone’s just trying to make new friends.”
“He was always just really smiley and nice to everyone,” she said. “I wish I knew him better.”
The Charlatan reached out to the student’s family for comment, but did not get a response in time for publication.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, contact:
- Mental Health Crisis Line: 613-722-6914 (within Ottawa) and 1-866-996-0991 (outside Ottawa)
- Distress Centre of Ottawa and Region 24-hour line: 613-238-3311
- Youth Services Bureau 24/7 Crisis Line: 613-260-2360 or 1-877-377-7775 (toll free for eastern Ontario).
Students who require counselling support can go in person between 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, to Health and Counselling Services at the CTTC Building, Suite 2600. Students may also call 613-520-6674 or walk in to schedule an appointment.
Carleton employees can access the after-hours Employee Assistance Program (EAP) by calling 1-800-668-9920, or 613-725-5676 during regular business hours.
Infographic by Camila Giudice
