Luna Wong was 16 years old when she arrived in England for a fresh start. Back home in Hong Kong, she had been struggling with her mental health for years, and her parents believed a new environment, a new school, and a chance to rebuild herself might be exactly what she needed. Ten months later, she was dead.
The story of what happened to Luna is not just a tragedy for one family. It raises serious questions about how English schools and institutions treat international students, particularly vulnerable teenagers who arrive from abroad with complex needs, and whose parents are thousands of miles away trusting that someone is looking out for them.
Luna had not always been this fragile. As a younger child, she was curious and creative, known for wandering to a bridge near her Hong Kong home and sitting quietly, watching the city move around her. She had a gift for photography, capturing corners of the city that others would walk straight past. She made people laugh. She was interested in everything.
But in 2019, when Luna was 13, Hong Kong was gripped by political unrest. Then came Covid. The combination was devastating for a teenager at a critical point in her development. For a long stretch, Luna barely left her family’s flat. School moved online. Friends became faces on a screen. Her world shrank to the size of her bedroom, and she changed inside it.
By the time lockdowns lifted, Luna was not the same person. The anxiety had taken hold in a serious way. She struggled to attend school in person, fell behind academically, and was diagnosed with both depression and anxiety. Her psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Later, ADHD medication and an anti-psychotic were added. The combination left her exhausted during the day and still unable to sleep properly at night. She gained weight, which caused her further distress.
Despite all of this, Luna’s curiosity never fully left her. She ordered psychology textbooks and read them on her own, trying to understand what was happening inside her own mind. She supported friends who were going through difficult times, and she dreamed of one day becoming a psychologist herself. The problem was that her school attendance was so poor it was hard to see a clear path forward in Hong Kong.
Her parents made the decision to send her to England. The idea was that a boarding school environment, with structure and support around her, might give Luna the stability she needed. They paid the fees. They trusted the institution. They said goodbye.
What followed over the next ten months is now the subject of serious scrutiny. Luna’s parents have spoken out publicly, with her mother stating plainly: ‘They accepted the money but didn’t take care of my child.’ That single sentence cuts to the heart of what her death has exposed about the way some English schools handle international students, particularly those with known mental health needs.
International students, especially those who are minors, occupy a complicated position in the English education system. They are financially valuable to schools and universities, often paying significantly higher fees than domestic students. But the pastoral and welfare obligations that come with enrolling a vulnerable teenager from overseas are substantial, and the evidence in cases like Luna’s suggests those obligations are not always met.
For a 16-year-old arriving in a new country, without family nearby, already carrying a significant mental health history and a complex medication regime, the support structures need to be robust. Communication with parents abroad needs to be consistent and honest. Warning signs need to be acted on quickly. The gap between what schools promise and what they actually deliver can, in the most serious cases, be fatal.
Luna’s case is now prompting wider calls for reform around how English schools recruit and care for international students with mental health vulnerabilities. Critics argue that schools are too focused on filling places and collecting fees, and not focused enough on what happens to those students once they arrive.
For Luna’s parents, no policy change will bring their daughter back. But they have chosen to speak publicly in the hope that what happened to her does not happen to another family. They sent their child to England believing she would be looked after. She was not. And the country that took her in owes it to them, and to every international student who follows, to take that failure seriously.