Brianna Ghey’s classmates mark what would have been her 17th birthday

To mark what would have been her 17th birthday, classmates of the late Brianna Ghey came into school this week wearing pink, her favourite colour.

Brianna, a transgender teenager, was just 16 years old when she was stabbed and killed in Linear Park, Warrington on 11 February.

Students at Birchwood High School in Cheshire, where Brianna had attended, paid special tribute to her on Tuesday (7 November), and sharing their favourite memories of the “beautiful” and “hilarious” young girl.

One student said, per ITV News: “I think it’s really important to remember Brianna because she was just so happy and it’s really important to show our respect for her.”

Another commented: “Just for children like us, we went to school with her, we knew her and we [saw] her about.

“To celebrate her and respect her and her family and her mum is so important.

“Especially in a school where people are growing up around each other, I think mental health is definitely a thing.”

Students also had the option to buy t-shirts, bracelets and keyrings that were on sale at school on Tuesday to raise money for the Peace in Mind campaign, set up by Brianna’s mum Esther Ghey.

The campaign helps to raise money for the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP), which offers additional training to teachers to help them better support young people with their mental health.

Esther told the news publication: “Young people are really struggling at the moment after the pandemic and being forced into an online world where social media is the only place that they were socialising.

“If we get mindfulness into all schools it will give them the coping strategies that they need to be able to build mental fitness.”

Esther had previously told PinkNews of her campaign: “In schools, there’s such a focus on academia and no focus on how people are actually doing.

“There’s no point in having straight A’s and having crippling anxiety and not being able to actually contribute to society at the end of that.” 

Four days after Brianna’s death, two teenagers – a boy and a girl, both aged 15 at the time and who cannot be named for legal reasons – were charged with the murder of the trans teen. 

Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to the murder. Their trial date has been set for 27 November.

Justice Yip told the court at the time of the first plea: “It’s a case in which I know emotions are likely to run high, that’s very understandable. There has been a lot of publicity about it already.

“We’re going to make sure that this case proceeds in a calm manner in court in a way that is going to be entirely fair to everybody.”