A bright and promising high school student was reportedly so ashamed after being caught cheating on an exam that she decided to take her own life, the New York Post reports.
Omotayo Adeoye, a 17-year-old student at the High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College, was caught looking at her cellphone during a German-language exam last Thursday, which prompted her teacher, Eva Malikova, to snatch it from her and chide her for her dishonesty.
"Oh, you shouldn't be cheating! You guys shouldn’t be cheating! You guys are lying to yourselves!" the teacher reportedly told Omotayo, who was reduced to tears as she apologized.
"Oh, you are not really sorry," Malikova reportedly continued, according to a witness in the classroom. "That's not a sincere apology!"
Shortly after the incident, Omotayo asked to be excused to go to the bathroom and then never returned.
She walked from the school at West 140th Street to the edge of the Hudson River at 165th Street, where she was observed putting her ID on a rock and then jumping into the river, apparently forcing herself underwater, the Post notes. The teen couldn't swim and reportedly ignored calls to return to shore.
Omotayo apparently left a suicide note on her exam, which hauntingly read, "I just want to go away forever on the bottom of the river."
New York City police have been combing the river for the teen's body, but so far she has not been found.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education declared that the department would do more to address students' mental-health problems. "We are conducting an investigation into this tragic incident, and we are taking immediate action," the spokeswoman told the Post.
As for the teacher, she did not respond to requests for comment, but according to several students she could be heard at the school on Friday screaming.
Read more at the New York Post.