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Third-Grader Found Hanging On Closet Hook- Boy In Intensive Care
NBC10.com ^ | April 26, 2005

Posted on 04/26/2005 7:12:28 PM PDT by new cruelty

PHILADELPHIA -- A third-grader at a Philadelphia public school was found hanging on a hook in a coatroom closet Tuesday and police aren't yet sure exactly what happened.

Sources told NBC 10 News that the 9-year-old boy is in intensive care at St. Christopher's Hospital. School officials and Philadelphia police are trying to find out if his hanging was an accident or if it was intentional.

The boy attends Pennypacker Samuel School on East Washington Lane in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia.

According to the Philadelphia public schools chief executive officer, Paul Vallas, about 9:30 a.m. a teacher sent the boy to the closet to hang up his coat.

"The one child in question had not hung up his coat, so he was asked to go to the coat room and hang up his coat. When he didn't come out -- (the teacher) described it as a minute, a minute and a half in the coatroom -- and then she called him and then went in and she saw him hanging from his uniform," Vallas said.

A school official administered CPR to the boy, who was unconscious.

School administrators said that none of the other students saw the boy unconscious in the closet, but NBC 10 News has learned that a student who was in the class at the time had a different story.

With his mother's permission, the student told NBC 10 that it was not the teacher who found the student in the closet.

"He went in the closet and my friends heard some noise, so they went to go check on him and they saw him and he wasn't breathing," the boy said. He said those boys then told the teacher.

NBC 10 brought this discrepancy to the attention of school officials who, at this time, continue to believe the teacher's account of what happened.

Vallas met with the boy's guardians -- his grandparents -- at the hospital.

"They just wanted an explanation of what happened, and we told them that the police were investigating, and obviously the school district is doing its own investigation. We just want to find out exactly what happened," Vallas said.

Vallas said that the grandparents told him there were no signs that the child was upset or depressed in any way.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: bullying
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1 posted on 04/26/2005 7:12:31 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

Something fishy went on there...


2 posted on 04/26/2005 7:14:31 PM PDT by Mannaggia l'America
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To: new cruelty

Lord have mercy...something isn't quite right here


3 posted on 04/26/2005 7:15:32 PM PDT by Blue Scourge (Rattlers strike fast, first, and hard....)
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To: Mannaggia l'America

Bullys or worse


4 posted on 04/26/2005 7:15:53 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: Mannaggia l'America

Yep. He didn't just put himself on the hook. I also wonder how he was knocked unconscious.


5 posted on 04/26/2005 7:17:52 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

ONZ! How awful! My mother went to that elementary school in the early 1940's.


6 posted on 04/26/2005 7:18:10 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Marriage is for breeders ... just like paragraphs!)
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To: new cruelty
He was unconscious because he was choked from hanging by the neck of his uniform.
7 posted on 04/26/2005 7:20:36 PM PDT by Rhiannon
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To: new cruelty
Vallas met with the boy's guardians -- his grandparents -- at the hospital.

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS??

8 posted on 04/26/2005 7:20:38 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: new cruelty
Yep. He didn't just put himself on the hook. I also wonder how he was knocked unconscious.

Well, I suppose the unconscious part came from the constriction of his neck by the clothing pulling against the hook. Struggling might have just made it pull tighter.
9 posted on 04/26/2005 7:21:09 PM PDT by beezdotcom (I'm usually either right or wrong...)
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To: Rhiannon

Ah, well that makes sense. Thanks. : )


10 posted on 04/26/2005 7:21:37 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

Hanging cut off his air supply. I don't think he was knocked unconscious.


11 posted on 04/26/2005 7:21:42 PM PDT by GummyIII ("Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.")
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To: new cruelty
He was unconscious because he was choked from hanging by the neck of his uniform.
12 posted on 04/26/2005 7:21:59 PM PDT by Rhiannon
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To: beezdotcom

Yes. I imagine at least 4 more people will post something similar down the thread.


13 posted on 04/26/2005 7:22:23 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

This must be more of that "socialization" that homeschooled kids are missing out on.


14 posted on 04/26/2005 7:24:43 PM PDT by SedVictaCatoni (<><)
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To: new cruelty

LOL...I think we were all typing at the same time. Want me to say it again? ;-)


15 posted on 04/26/2005 7:24:43 PM PDT by GummyIII ("Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.")
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To: beezdotcom

Do you think it's possible he was trying to play a joke and somehow hung himself there? We have no details... it's possible he stood on something and then it flew out from under him.


16 posted on 04/26/2005 7:25:50 PM PDT by GummyIII ("Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.")
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To: Rhiannon

He went out after only one minute?


17 posted on 04/26/2005 7:25:50 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: GummyIII

LOL. Sure, why not. :)


18 posted on 04/26/2005 7:26:33 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: Husker24

Between the restriction of air and the restriction of the blood flow to the brain, it only takes a minute. If he'd broken his neck (not easily done from a closet hook) it would have been death.


19 posted on 04/26/2005 7:31:03 PM PDT by GummyIII ("Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.")
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To: GummyIII

I used to chin myself between two hooks - can't quite see how I would have got my collar tangled. Poor boy - prayers for his recovery.


20 posted on 04/26/2005 7:31:38 PM PDT by heartwood
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