At dusk on Wednesday the 18th, the Jardim Universitário campus of the Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA), in Foz do Iguaçu, gave way to a demonstration by academics in memory of Isabelly Baldin, an autistic medical student who passed away on Monday the 16th. It was the fatal outcome of the pain she had been expressing for at least 15 months, when she exchanged messages with a classmate, reporting harassment by teachers and bullying by classmates. Coincidentally, this date is National Autistic Pride Day.
The demonstration was attended by students with disabilities (PCDs) and other students, who demand justice, respect and accountability in the face of what they see as UNILA's failure to act on the complaints that already exist. One of the posters read in bold letters: “Enough ableism at UNILA.” Another tribute read: “No one deserves to suffer alone.”
In a statement, UNILA expresses its regret, highlights the assistance it provided to the university student and vehemently condemns the accusations made on social media surrounding the case. “UNILA invites everyone to reflect: one cannot ask for justice and inclusion by abusing emotional fragility and carrying out attacks on the integrity of public educational institutions and their workers”, highlights the note from the rectorate. See the full document below.
Present at the protest, Lee Matievicz Pereira, 20 years old, a student of Cinema and Audiovisual at UNILA, told H2FOZ Isabelly’s case is by no means isolated. According to the university student, the University has consistently failed its autistic students, “not listening to us when we report the violence and social segregation we suffer, and denying us our basic rights as people with disabilities in an academic environment.” The young woman echoed the sentiments of those present at the event:
"She reported what she was suffering. She sought help. She screamed, and no one listened. And it’s not just her. There are students who literally hide the fact that they are autistic, because they would rather deprive themselves of themselves than be treated the way the university environment treats us. The statement published by the University, saying that we are using the pain of Isabelly’s death for the media, is yet another slap in the face to the autistic community at UNILA. It is yet another proof that our pain is not “important enough”. Isabelly died because she was pushed to her limit, by people who decided that she deserved to suffer, just for being different. We want justice, for her and for the entire autistic community at UNILA. Our lives are more important than the reputation of a University."
First conversations
O H2FOZ had access to messages from Isabelly, 27, and her classmate, Diego Andrade, 44, which expose the young woman's anguish. In the exchanges of messages on WhatsApp, which began on February 27, 2024, she says that she preferred to try to forget the suffering she had already faced and that hurt her so much.
Diego Andrade is a second-year medical student, autistic, with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and a wheelchair user. He and Isabelly tried to help each other in order to overcome conflict situations from students and teachers. Including ageism, which is discrimination and prejudice based on age.
According to Diego, both he and Isabelly and more than a dozen university students with disabilities were summoned by the Federal Police in February 2025 to give statements as victims. The university student kept the incident a secret for fear of retaliation or that someone would do something bad to her. On the afternoon of June 18, Diego Andrade went to the Civil Police to open an investigation so that the investigation into what happened to Isabelly would also address the complaints she made. The academic also forwarded the conversations between the two to the Federal Police.
Reports among academics
They were enrolled in the same class, T9. In February 2024, Diego told Isabelly that he was going through difficult situations and that he had learned from friends that she had faced the same thing. They both lost a year of school due to the problems they caused. “I’m a little afraid to touch on this story, I suffered too much. (…) I lost a year because of persecution,” Isabelly wrote at the time, reluctant to touch on the past again.
Both continue the conversation and come up with the same names of two professors who, according to the students, were not accepting changes in the test routine and adaptations. According to Diego, the course refuses to comply with the curricular adaptations guaranteed by law. The student mentions the prohibition of using hearing protection during the test, when the professor involved wrote a report describing the case.
Isabelly responds, discouraged. “Look, honestly? I’ve already given up on fighting for my rights, you know, nobody cares about you, the center even tries to help, but sometimes the teachers get angry at us because the center is always on top of us, and we end up paying for it.” In short, Isabelly tells Diego to follow her advice, ignore the teacher and, at the same time, if the student has the means to sue the professor… go ahead. “I couldn’t do it.”
She emphasized that even with a diagnosis, which gave her rights, she was subjugated. Isabelly apologized for not being able to help, reaffirmed that she had already suffered a lot, did not want to get involved in the matter anymore, did not want to relive it all again, seek justice. She knew that in the future she would suffer again from persecution, but she would let it go, because those attitudes would not define her character and who she was. She advised Diego, once again, to ignore those who were getting in his way or, if she had proof, to sue them.
A few months later
At the end of 2024, in November, Isabelly contacts Diego to find out how certain students in the T9 class behaved. Diego says that he was bullied by a classmate and that the teacher of the subject informed the responsible department. Isabelly gives the names of two boys and a girl. Diego says that he was even nicknamed Forrest. This is an analogy to the 1994 film whose main character has an Intellectual Disability (ID).
That same month, Isabelly reported on students who were persecuting her, and that she had even met with a department at UNILA, but that she did not know how to act. Whether to file a complaint with the Ombudsman, file a police report or speak to the coordinator – although, at that time, she wrote to her colleague and said that she did not believe in the institution.
Transfer to Cascavel
Diego encouraged her to fight for her rights, but she explained that she could not afford a lawyer and wanted to try to transfer to Cascavel. She had already filed a lawsuit requesting the transfer, but it was very slow. She had no desire to go to college. But she still asked for the contact details of the lawyer who defended Diego.
“I want to go to Unioeste (in Cascavel) because that’s where my parents live, and I have all the support I need. Here in Foz I feel completely helpless and isolated.” Isabelly compares her situation to Diego’s and says: “My case isn’t as difficult as yours. The only thing is that Unioeste won’t accept my transfer, not even because I’m autistic, bipolar, have depression, anxiety, and ADHD. And Unila doesn’t even care about us students. They do everything they can to get things and then they leave us behind,” Isabelly concludes.
UNILA Note
"UNILA expresses its deepest condolences for the death of Isabelly Baldin, which occurred on June 16, 2025, and expresses absolute dismay at the exploitation of the student's death. Personal and influencer profiles have been appropriating the pain of loss and the condition of neuroatypical people to direct attacks at the institution.
Since the incident, while the institution has been investigating the facts and providing assistance to the family members and to the students and staff affected, accusations that ignore the internal processes adopted by UNILA to support the student have started to circulate on social media in an inconsequential manner. Within a few hours, while the wake was still taking place, videos, messages, cards, petitions and even advertisements began to inappropriately expose the image of our student, her obituary and her family, and to launch attacks on the institution.
UNILA invites everyone to reflect: one cannot demand justice and inclusion by abusing emotional fragility and attacking the integrity of public education institutions and their workers. While UNILA and its teams are committed to investigating the incident and supporting students with real and immediate actions, there is a flood of hate messages, with accusations and condemnations directed at the University. Unfortunately, on social media, misinformation spreads faster than all the actions taken.
Check out the concrete, preventive and welcoming actions carried out with Isabelly:
1. Monitoring the student from the moment they enter the course;
2. Periodic consultations to develop and prepare the student’s individual work plan;
3. Reformulation of the study plan together with the course coordinator and the student herself;
4. Frequent contact with Isabelly's family;
5. Inclusion of the student, since 2023, as a scholarship holder of the Financial Support Program for the Academic Development of Students with Disabilities at UNILA;
6. Assistance to the student and her family due to worsening of her mental health condition;
7. Holding meetings with teachers and the pre-internship group;
8. Encouragement of participation in the Medicine Athletics handball team and other sporting activities at the University;
9. Monitoring the student's mental health (the student reported being under active psychiatric and psychological monitoring).
Finally, UNILA once again regrets the death of student Isabelly Baldin, expresses its solidarity with all those who are mourning, especially family members and the academic community, and declares that it will remain firm and in dialogue with students in its commitment to promote inclusion actions for higher education accessible to all people."
Support Network
Brazil has a free service for emotional support and guidance in difficult situations. Formed by volunteers, the Life Valuation Center (CVV) provides 24-hour service, confidentially and anonymously, online and by phone at 188.
Unfortunately, UNILA did nothing and, instead of admitting that it failed the student, it issued a formal note of condolence. UNILA is a fantastic university, but this protection of professors and students who practice prejudice and discrimination is incomprehensible! Try to do an investigative report there and you will see that the situation is much worse than it seems, and that there will be a lack of “notes of condolence” from now on.
The student movement always seems to increase the burden of those around it. Here we see reports of people with shaken mental and emotional health. But not because of a diagnosis, but because of ideologies that unite them through complaints.
Instead of trying to actually help people while they are still alive, they try to find someone to blame for a suicide. The suicidal person tries to alleviate their own internal pain. But yes. Mental health is a huge professional demand among university students and the work must be clinical.
The role of a health professional is not to hold a soiree with artistic activism.
People should demand that the State provide neuropsychologists, psychologists and psychiatrists to assist this population whose minds are so destroyed due to being far from their parents and immersed in an ideological bubble where narcotics are well regarded…
In fact, an investigation should be opened, starting with the destructive environment that the institution allows students and staff to maintain within its walls.
Crimes must be reported. The environment of public universities and medical education is not one of impunity, but rather of responsibility in maintaining good models.
May this wheelchair-bound student be respected according to guidelines for inclusive education, a constitutional right! Let us pray for the family and for wisdom for those involved in this demonstration.
Now that the institution's "name" has been messed with, does it want to take action and show solidarity? UNILA has been labeled as a college that does not respect people with disabilities and their limitations.
Respect for rights, you are forming university students!!!!
Penalizing students who were supposed to be empathetic but seem to not be prepared as if they had their health their whole lives, forgetting that we are moments and that in these moments we can be deficient, in every institution there are these types of professionals and teachers who are not raised in the reality that, as I said, empathy and thinking about tomorrow, we are not made of iron and at any moment we can be deficient, empathy for others is everything, respect, character, punishment for these people, there should be stricter laws to comply with in this regard!
This case is deeply painful — and symptomatic of a structural problem that still persists in many Brazilian public universities: the trivialization of the psychological suffering of students with disabilities, neurodivergence or mental disorders, combined with the slowness or omission of institutions in the face of serious complaints.
What is most shocking about the story is that Isabelly cried out for help, repeatedly, and no one listened. The messages reveal a young woman who was intelligent, sensitive and tired of fighting alone. The feeling of institutional abandonment is evident. Even though she had the legal right to adaptations and support, she was subjugated, discredited and, in the end, silenced.
UNILA's position, although formal and formal, sounds more like an institutional defense than a genuine listening exercise. Pointing out that students are "taking advantage of the pain" to attack the institution is, at the very least, insensitive and inhumane, given the gravity of the accusations and the irreparable loss.
It is important to recognize that the fight for inclusion goes beyond notes of condolence and programs on paper. It requires active listening, effective measures, accountability for those who commit violence — including teachers — and ongoing support, not just after the tragedy.
Isabelly’s death cannot be reduced to an exception or used for speeches about damage containment. It must be a breaking point. An end to it. And a public demand for justice, structural change and real respect for the dignity of students with disabilities.
If the pain of Isabelly and so many others is ignored again, how many more deaths will it take for a university to listen to its students before it is too late?
I think it's absurd what they did to this student Isabelly to the point of KILLING Y before persecution that I do not agree with this absurd situation because you have to respect people with this type of disease now ask ❓ if these people who did this would like it to be with them, I REPUDIATE this action if I were a federal justice authority I would order the arrest of those who committed the crime of death because death has no return here anymore deeply regrettable earth how are your breads with this pain in your daughter's leg, the university is to blame because it failed to help in the situation of threats now your colleague acted right, may GOD ALMIGHTY ADVISE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR PERSONAL PASTOR POWERFUL ETERNAL FRIEND BEST FAITHFUL 🇧🇷 ‼️
In the article, Diego mentions “ageism,” one of the most serious problems that plague medical schools. I am 51 years old, a university professor at a federal institution, and I have three undergraduate degrees, nine specializations, a master’s degree, a doctorate, and a post-doctorate. I recently told some fellow professors that I would take the ENEM (National High School Exam) because I want to study medicine. At the same time, I was “ridiculed” by some, who said that I would be an “old person in kindergarten,” and advised by others not to pursue the idea of studying medicine at a public university, because the students – most of whom are white and wealthy – would ruin my mental health due to ageism. Medical schools at public universities may be the best, but they are taught in hostile environments, where ageism, racism, and other forms of prejudice and harassment are naturalized.
It's impressive how capable people are of doing evil in the world and to innocent people, like an autistic person, and how incapable they are of understanding that all autistic people are the same people, but with much more capacity to be human, not like animals like those who call themselves normal humans. You who consider yourselves normal are actually just a pile of human trash.
Bullong is a crime, the university, teachers, students and others involved must pay for the crime committed.
Now that I have become aware of the case, and just by reading UNILA's statement, I can see the disregard shown in referring to the family's pain as an abuse of emotional fragility ("abusing emotional fragility and attacking the integrity of public educational institutions"). The institution cannot stand criticism and, to do so, tries to nullify the feelings of a grieving family. It seems to persist in its error.