A grieving mother, whose teenage daughter was found dead in her Milford Haven home, has said that her daughter was ‘let down at every opportunity’ by her school.

Megan Evans, 14, was a pupil at Milford Haven Comprehensive school at the time of her death.

At an inquest this week, her mother, Nicola Harteveld, said that her daughter was ‘persecuted’ by the school and that teachers there were ‘chipping away at her’.

One of the issues was that the school did not approve of the school trousers that Megan had. Mrs Harteveld said that they were from the Next school uniform range and worn by other pupils.

She said that there were countless letters sent home about the trousers and that teachers would bring it up in school with Megan.

“At every opportunity teachers took the opportunity to go on at her all the time. They were chipping away at her,” she said.

The inquest heard that the month before she died Megan, who had special dispensation to have lunch at home, was denied the opportunity by a teacher that the family claimed ‘grabbed her and forced her back in school’.

A police investigation found the allegations unproved. However, CCTV footage of the incident was lost.

Mrs Harteveld said that the allegations were not investigated by the school and that after this Megan’s ‘trust in school went out the window’.

The inquest also had view of messages recovered from Megan’s phone where she confided in a friend that she had behaved badly on more than one occasion, using bad language and walking out of a lesson.

Mrs Harteveld said that this behaviour, which happened in the period before Megan’s death, was totally out of character and that the school should have let Megan’s parents know what was going on.

“We had that many letters about her trousers,” she said. “There was nothing about her behaviour. If there had I would have been up the school to find out exactly what was going on.”

Another message from Megan to her friend said that she had punched a toilet wall in school so hard that the school first aider recommended that she went to A&E. Again Mrs Harteveld said that this had not been communicated to her or her husband.

Her parents were also not informed about a time out card that Megan said in a message she had for anger problems in school.

At the end of January 2017, Megan had not been allowed on a school trip because she did not have the correct paperwork. Even after the paperwork was completed she wasn’t able to go and had spent the rest of that week off school with symptoms of anxiety.

“She didn’t like the way the school was treating her,” said Mrs Harteveld. “At every opportunity she was belittled by people that she was supposed to have trust in and that were there to make her feel safe and cared for.

“She was let down at every possible opportunity.”

The inquest into the circumstances around Megan’s death continues with evidence from teachers at the school expected to be heard tomorrow.