I am late getting this one posted, but it was the weekend and we had so much crap going on with other stories, that it kept getting pushed back.
AUSTIN, Texas - Some of you may have read about this already, but in Texas, a 7-year-old boy was found hanging by his shirt from a coat hook in a dressing room at the Not Your Ordinary School charter campus for children in pre-kindergarten through third grade. He was found by a teacher when he never returned from being excused from an assembly to go to the bathroom. They found him unconscious, caught on the hook by his shirt with the collar having cut off oxygen. He died last FridayFriday reviews
.
Now, the story actually gets really strange as it has been reported that the hooks was just low enough that the kid could have done it himself, why I have no idea, but it was possible. Also, get this, the kids pants were down at his ankles. Now, there a couple explanations for this, one being the scenario you are already thinking…that he was molested. The other, as pointed out by investigators, is that the pants were baggy and simply fell to his ankles.
In any event, the story is a strange one and I am real curious as to what comes of it. Bullying, molesting, accident. Any route you go is pretty tragic. We may be getting some better info on this story soon.
12:24 pm on February 4th, 2008
I guess it beat hanging out at the assembly.
12:24 pm on February 4th, 2008
I guess the hooks could be that low so smaller children could reach to hang up their coats but, the pants around his ankles just sounds suspicious. It’s certainly possible that his pants were of the baggy-boxers-hanging-out variety and fell while he struggled to breathe and get off the hook. You’d think though that, that’d be easy for the police to determine, pull them up and see how they fit.
12:31 pm on February 4th, 2008
What’s really gonna be interesting here is if it turns out that other kids did this to him. Because that’s just where my Impqueen Brand Perpetrator Detector keeps stopping.
12:47 pm on February 4th, 2008
I have to agree with you here. This school is public, but you have to be entered in a lottery to get in. A lot of these schools require uniforms and are strict about their dress code. Also, a 7 year old isn’t usually “gangsta” enough to want to wear baggy pants. Especially a 7 year old whose family would take all the trouble to get him into one of these kinds of schools. The pants around the ankles really bothers me.
Plus, if he ended up on a hook by himself, wouldn’t he also be able to get himself off?
12:59 pm on February 4th, 2008
Not Your Ordinary School seems to have been an excellent name for the place.
I agree, Kathy. If you get yourself on the hook, couldn’t you get yourself off? And why would you get yourself on the hook in the first place? Suicide at age 7? Not impossible, but ….
I agree with Imp. This sounds like one of those stupid scenarios in which someone saw a kid in a movie get hung on a hook and decided it would be fun to humiliate this kid in the same manner. In the movies, we adults can see the person is really suspended by a harness attached to a wall, but elementary school kids are not analytical perhaps.
1:06 pm on February 4th, 2008
Hopefully, they took informal role at assembly. That might leave staff unaccounted for, however. I don’t know if 7 is too young for this but, there is also an erotic practice that involves hanging oneself until close to death to increase sensation.
1:55 pm on February 4th, 2008
I can’t imagine a 7 year old doing anything for the sexual appeal.
2:02 pm on February 4th, 2008
Video added.
I am thinking kids as well. I don’t think it was sexual, sexual as a child molester running around hanging kids on hooks so he could blow them ’til they passed out kind of thing. Although, that would make for a vile movie villain.
3:00 pm on February 4th, 2008
Well played ole boy. I was thinking along the auto-erotica line too but for gawsh sakes he’s only 7 I can’t imagine he was into public masturbation yet.
4:35 pm on February 4th, 2008
I think you’ve got a pitch for a screenplay there, Morbid.
4:45 pm on February 4th, 2008
Way ahead of you. I am on page 6.
1:03 am on February 5th, 2008
Preliminary autopsy didn’t reveal cause of death according to
http://tinyurl.com/3a9pbh
I could see MANNER of death not being revealed, I think its pretty obvious how the kid died.
CPS has also started an investigation, so thats three agencies now investigating the poor baby’s death.
1:15 am on February 5th, 2008
If somebody else hung the kid up, I’m thinking he could have kicked his pants off himself, inadvertently, if he were scrabbling for purchase.
That is, if his pants were the baggy type.
1:50 am on February 5th, 2008
Lets say he was screwing around like 7 year olds do, crawled up on top of a locker, fell off and got hung up on the hook. You would think that he could slip out of his shirt to get free. But then again, he was 7 years old and more than likely panicked and started thrashing.
Or … the pervy janitor got a hold of him.
At any rate, thats a hell of a way to die. Poor little guy.
7:00 am on February 5th, 2008
that is a strange name for a school…. when i think of bathrooms I think of the hook on the inside of the stall …. I do not picture lockers in them most elem. school I have been too either removed the doors, never installed doors or use concrete block to partition between the toilets no front doors. also there were stairsteps or a box to step up on in front of the sink – not all kids are tall enough to reach the faucet at that age. school ranges from 3 – 9 my guess.
I have seen small kids with baggy pants – moms tend to buy them little loose so they have room to grow in expecially uniform pants they are expensive but worn with a belt.
first thing that came to my mind was the BUDDY SYSTEM When i was in elementary sch or scouts they taught that – almost always we were to take another child with us incase there was a problem.
my niece will be 7 in a few weeks i can’t imagine her getting herself hooked – She still ask someone to go to the restroom with her especially if she is going to do #2.
if there was an assembly going on I am amazed they didnt have a staff member at the enterance of the gym or auditorium watching as a hall monitor – that person should of went to see if the boy was aright when he didnt return within a couple moments and should be able to say if there were other kids going in and out of that restroom. The supervision there sucks!
easier said then done – I am sure they have revamped their policy practice now – I doubt this will be an issue from here on out.
janitor came to my mind too
9 year olds are probably the oldest kids in the school (third graders) I just don’t see a pair of them doing this to another kid – 11 12 maybe but not 8-9 it would take two kids to pick up and hang a kid on a hook as a practical joke. in that case someone should fess up – they hired an investigator to portray different scenarios what could of occured.
sad in todays world they needs to be camera everywhere – just incase
—————
warning: remove drawstrings on hoodies and straps on bookbags they have got caught in bus doors etc and known to drag kids down the road after the bus door closes. yes I know this isnt about a drawstring just thought I would mention it, they are hazardous.
8:25 am on February 5th, 2008
Ells, the family is in seclusion, but I have been able to get some information from a cousin in Texas. The cousin says that the family’s been told that the boy didn’t die of strangulation, but of heart failure due to being hung up for so long.
8:45 am on February 5th, 2008
Oh, the family also says that the hook was a “purse hook” or coat hook inside the bathroom stall near a toilet. So while it is possible that he could have gotten onto the toilet, then hung himself up, his feet would not have been able to reach the floor once he was hung.
The cousin believes that it was probably kids who hung him up. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for an adult pedophile to molest a child, then hang him in such a way that it would take so long for him to die. The family is adamant that no child would hang themselves deliberately in the way in which this boy was found. However, they say that it’s unlikely his pants got to his ankles by themselves, and that they were told he had likely been molested.
The cousin who is providing my information lives in the Austin area and has been unable to work – she goes in, but has to leave within an hour or so. The entire family is horrified and grieving intensely for this little boy, and they just want it out there that he didn’t do this to himself.
9:27 am on February 5th, 2008
” Not Your Ordinary School ”
Yep, sounds about right. This whole thing is just very odd. Sounds like there wasn’t much supervision going on. As someone else said, someone should have been aware of what time the little guy left the assembly, and should have gone to check on him when he didn’t return within minutes. I mean, this is a 7 yr old – not an older child! If the boy had time to die there on the hook, obviously school employees took wayyy too long to go check on him. And the pants down? Something is not right, sadly, I don’t see this as a freak accident. That poor child. I can’t imagine what the family is going through.
I asked my 6 yr old son (he’s in Kindergarten) how they do things at his school when a student leaves to use the restroom. He said they usually take class restroom breaks. At other times when a student needs to go they are allowed to go alone, but must ’sign out’ first , and the teacher marks the time on it. If they take too long an adult hall monitor or a teacher will go check on them and walk them back to class. So, at his school they atleast are keeping good track of the children – thank goodness. But, regardless… after reading this, I hardly wanted to let my little guy leave for school this morning. It’s so sad – children just aren’t safe anywhere nowadays
9:30 am on February 5th, 2008
Awe, Imp. That is too heartbreaking.
I don’t believe he did it to himself either. Probably some overgrown bullies. This school does, after all, serve grades K-12. A definite disadvantage of having all those children together is that it increases the chances of a younger child being victimized by an older one. Someone knows something. A bully doesn’t do things like this without making sure someone knows about it.
10:22 am on February 5th, 2008
Which is why I am starting to lean to accident. Somebody would have squealed by now, I would think. If police still have no proof of other people’s involvement, I just cannot go with this being on purpose. Not in this manner.
I wish I knew the situation of the hook and the toilet.
10:49 am on February 5th, 2008
As I don’t hang out in school rest rooms much, I wondered that,too. I’ve seen hooks on the back wall like that, but they have always been up high just like the ones on the door, easily accessed if you are standing-not so much sitting.
If he was not in there alone, maybe he and some other boy were trying to peek over the top of the stall at each other and he slipped just right. Or he was hiding, so standing on the toilet, again slipping and falling just right to catch himself.
Its like little kids with the hoodies that get hung on banisters… it happens one in a million times and they have to do it in just a way or nothing happens.
11:14 am on February 5th, 2008
Maybe, but kids who think they are going to get in trouble can keep secrets for a long time. For example, my cousin and I set a grass fire when I was in the 3rd grade. (No one got hurt, no property was damaged…put away your pitchforks…) We made a pact never to tell anyone that we were the ones responsible for it because we knew we would get into BIG trouble. We never even discussed it again until we were both grown women with children.
If you have two kids who both feel equally responsible and no one else knows, they may never tell.
12:02 pm on February 5th, 2008
2:32 pm on February 5th, 2008
I am wondering what kind of assembly was it. Was it school only? Why could no one one hear him call out?
2:55 pm on February 5th, 2008
In the original write-up, it says the school is pre-K through 3rd grade not 8th???
3:03 pm on February 5th, 2008
See below from the media today. Perhaps the assembly was in the gym and the bathroom was attached.
Meeting about boy’s death today
The governing council of the Not Your Ordinary School has called another meeting to discuss the incident involving a 7-year-old boy who died Friday after he was found hanging from a hook at one of the group’s charter schools days earlier.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. today at the Magnolia McCullough Elementary campus, 1605 Kramer Lane, in North Austin.
The boy, whose name has not been released, was discovered unconscious at the campus Wednesday.
Since then, school officials have removed all restroom hooks, removed restroom doors in the gymnasium and required students to use the “buddy system” when using gym restrooms.
Austin police said they are still investigating the death. The boy’s body was taken to the Travis County medical examiner for an autopsy; final results were not available Monday.
3:07 pm on February 5th, 2008
There are three schools that range from pre-K to 12th.
Magnolia McCullough Elementary – pre-k 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Yager Elementary – 4th and 5th Grades
Yager Secondary – The Rest
Something like that.
3:07 pm on February 5th, 2008
There are 3 schools in the NYOS. This is the only one for kids the boy’s age and only goes to 3rd grade: http://www.nyos.org/magnoliamccullough.html
3:10 pm on February 5th, 2008
Hmmm…and that is the right school above.
They said that they are trying to identify possible witnesses but that their efforts were hindered because the school was dismissing for the day when they arrived Wednesday. On Thursday, counselors from the Center for Child Protection interviewed children who might know something about what happened.
Police have said they responded to a 911 “person down” call at the school but declined Thursday to release an audiotape of the call.
Spangler said the boy had been attending an assembly program in the school’s gymnasium and asked his teacher for permission to go to the bathroom. The teacher noticed a short time later that he had not returned and began searching the area.
School officials said teachers are required to do a head count when moving from one building to the next.
Spangler said a male teacher checked the bathroom and found the boy.
Spangler said police are trying to find out how many, if any, children also received permission to go to the bathroom during that time.
The school has 288 students and 17 teachers.
3:13 pm on February 5th, 2008
The boy actually was found hanging on January 30th and died two days later, at 2:30 PM on February 1 after being in critical condition for two days. His heart probably failed because his brain didn’t recover after being without oxygen for a long time. However, the collar didn’t strangle him as much as it apparently cut off his trachea from his hanging forward. The cousin believes he couldn’t call out because of the pressure on the front of his neck.
Here’s a link to recent school announcements about the boy’s death and measures the school is taking – the boy went to Magnolia McCullough Elementary in Austin, which is a K-3 school : http://www.nyos.org/importantannouncements.html
3:13 pm on February 5th, 2008
Ruled out bullying and sexual assault…
APD on Thursday said from the position the child was in, it was not impossible that he got that way by himself. Officers, however, could not confirm how he ended up hanging on a hook.
“The height of the hook was such that he could have placed himself there,” said police Lt. Mark Spangler.
Investigators learned that the boy received permission from a teacher to leave the assembly and go to the restroom. Later a different teacher found the child.
APD has ruled out sexual assault and a bullying incident. Police noted that the boy wore loose pants, which may have fallen down on their own.
“We have concerns,” said Jeff Hampton with the APD Child Abuse Unit, “not just as far as the criminal investigation, but also concerns with how the school operates, which is not under our domain to dictate what should or should not be done, but the schools should be a safe environment for our children.”
Police said they are concerned about this incident, because it happened in school, where several staff and students were around. Officials said 288 students attend the school.
Officers have interviewed a student who saw the incident and said they believe this is more than just a medical issue. The department is asking for the public’s help with witnesses or additional information.
3:20 pm on February 5th, 2008
Could they be a bit more cryptic? Its not bullying, its not medical, so what the hell was it?
3:24 pm on February 5th, 2008
Right, that’s what I was thinking. What’s the deal? A student saw the incident, what did he see?
3:57 pm on February 5th, 2008
What the heck. Not bullying, not sexual assault, more than just a medical issue, and a student saw the incident. What incident? The kid hanging there or how the kid got there?
7:24 pm on February 5th, 2008
The police have gotten very good at saying nothing at all in many words.
11:24 pm on February 5th, 2008
Any updates on this one? It all sounds very mysterious… and covered up….
5:51 pm on February 6th, 2008
Boy’s photo here: http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7827418
5:56 pm on February 6th, 2008
Thanks AB, the article stated:
KXAN Austin News also spoke with one of Tevin’s football coaches, and the full story will air on Austin News at 5 and 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Maybe they will divulge how he got on the hook, I’m really curious.
6:00 pm on February 6th, 2008
Thanks, AB. Story and title updated accordingly.
6:20 pm on February 6th, 2008
He’s beautiful. What a shame.
12:02 am on February 7th, 2008
aww shit…he had a twin…..
Tevin and his twin brother played on the midget football team that went on to win the state championship. Number 43 will never be worn again.
1:09 am on February 7th, 2008
Scenario:
(remember, this child is only seven and small)
He goes to the restroom, he uses the stool that is there so he can reach the potty, His aim is a little off, He slips falling backwards kicking the stool out from under his feet, He hits his head on the door causing wooziness, His shirt collar gets caught on the hook, His pants are still undone from using the restroom and they slide down around his ankles, the collar is pushing into his throat causing him not to be able to make a sound, and slowly his air is cut off and he looses conscienceness all together, No perp, no cruelty, no abuse, just one in a million chance accident. God, please let this one be an accident.
2:07 am on February 7th, 2008
I’m with you Nuberius.
2:25 am on February 7th, 2008
Well, Nuberius, that seems pretty unlikely. The potty would probably be sized for kids. Remember, the school only goes up to 3rd grade. There was another thread about a 7 year old boy who killed himself over a bad grade. I don’t know what to think about this one. The police sure are being cloudy in their statements.
2:44 am on February 7th, 2008
Unlikely
but we can still hope.
2:50 am on February 7th, 2008
I wasn’t aware that they make 3rd grade and under sized toilets. So what size toilets are there for the grown up teachers in a grown up sized open to all for assemblies gymnasium? I don’t think they would have different restrooms for different age/size groups at the gymnasium. But I could be wrong. It was one of those high fellutin schools, so its possible they went the extra mile and had small, medium and large restrooms installed.
Besides Wry, I’m just hoping that for once it was just a horrible ACCIDENT and that poor baby did not leave this world at the hands of a monster. Have some faith that there aren’t bad people lurking around every corner.
12:17 pm on February 7th, 2008
From the media:
Twenty-two pupils have been withdrawn from Not Your Ordinary School since last Wednesday, when Tevin was found unconscious, hanging on a hook in a gym bathroom. He died at Dell Children’s Medical Center on Friday.
So far, parents have withdrawn eight students from the Yager campus and 14 students from the Magnolia McCullough campus. Tevin was enrolled in second grade at the Magnolia McCullough campus, located on Yager Lane.
12:44 pm on February 7th, 2008
Why would parents withdraw their children if there wasn’t something “a buzz” amongst the students? Seems like some parents may have heard something from their kids attending the school. If any parents have any info, I wish they would give it up to the cops, especially if there is “someone” that should be watched around the remaining kids.
6:44 am on February 8th, 2008
ODD The boy is smaller then the average 7 yr old … I just don’t see how its possible – surely no hooks would be that low… how very suspicious…
I am glad to hear they are making provisions to the facility taking out the hooks and the doors is a good beginning… The decision for parents to remove their students seems extreme but granted they must be terribly shaking up I totally understand better to be safe then sorry – I do hope they can resolve this matter.
——–
“While the family continues to ask that their privacy be respected at this time, they would like to share some information about Tevin and his life as well as provide details regarding funeral arrangements.
“Please note that this will be the only statement the family will release. Thus, no interviews will be granted
“Tevin was as active as any 7-year-old child. When not playing video games or watching his favorite wrestlers on television, you would find him playing football. He played safety for the Austin Dellwood Red Raiders, a midget division that just recently won the state championship. Tevin was a scholar with dreams of one day becoming a police officer. He was only in second grade, but already working at a third grade advance level. In addition to his love of sports and school, family was also very important to him. He shared a close bond with his parents and older sister and brother. Tevin will be greatly missed by all those who knew and loved him.”
Tevin and his twin brother played on the midget football team that went on to win the state championship. Number 43 will never be worn again.
(Teammates will wear patches on their uniforms to honor him as well.)
What a very sad situation I feel terrible for his twin brother… there is a special bond with twins there is some comfort in knowing he at least has another sibling – my prayers are with this family in need
anyone happen to see this story ?
would this be in addition to the videos posted on this link ? There are videos about this story at that link http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7827418
*** they have a really neat name Park-Flowers
10:44 am on February 8th, 2008
Any news on this one?? This little boy’s face is haunting my dreams. What a sweetie. And, oh, how I feel for his twin!
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