3rd-Grader Found Hanging From Hook in School Coatroom; Critical Condition

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB9882V18E.html

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 9-year-old boy was in critical condition after he was found unconscious in a school coatroom, hanging from a hook by his shirt collar, authorities said.

A teacher at Pennypacker Elementary School told Dominic Jones to hang up his coat Tuesday, and the third-grader went in the walk-in coatroom but did not immediately come out, school district spokesman Vincent Thompson said.

The teacher went to check on the boy about two minutes later and found him hanging from a coat hook by the collar of his uniform shirt.

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. school bullying eh

[ret5hd]

2. hmmm...something fishy...how did he do this himself?

[skylarmae]

3. oh man - I f--cking hate stories like this

causes physiological trauma due to mental anguish...

[LizW]

4. WTF????

That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.

[Roland99]

5. Holy Crap!

"My grandmother hung me on a hook once. Once."



That just popped into my mind...sorry.



Wow...hope the kid's ok.

[Rainscents]

6. 9 years old found hanging from coat hook in school

This very sad news.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB9882V18E.html

Third-Grader Found Hanging From Hook in School Coatroom; in Critical Condition
The Associated Press
Published: Apr 27, 2005






PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 9-year-old boy was in critical condition after he was found unconscious in a school coatroom, hanging from a hook by his shirt collar, authorities said.

[apnu]

7. I smell a rat

:wtf:

And authorities are clueless -- AND the teacher's name is being witheld?

:wtf:

[Montauk6]

8. I'm not even sure if I want to know how that could happen!

[Warpy]

19. Bullies

They probably saw it in a movie or a television show and thought it would be fun to do to a weaker kid in the class.

[Montauk6]

23. Yes but IN TWO MINUTES???

[Occulus]

33. I was stuffed into a garbage can headfirst by 12 kids in 20 seconds

and the "playground monitor" was watching and laughing.

I forget whether I was laughing or screaming. Maybe it was somewhere in between.

[Carolab]

9. They should have taken him out of his coat first.

Whoa.

[Mugweed]

18. Headline: Student Also Stabbed Self In Back Several Times

[CBGLuthier]

21. That's not funny. nt

[Judi Lynn]

10. More on the story:

Posted on Wed, Apr. 27, 2005





Pupil found hanging from coat-room hook

3rd-grader in intensive care; cops probing

By MENSAH M. DEAN

[e-mail]


AS 9-YEAR-OLD Dominic Jones lay in intensive care yesterday, Philadelphia police and school district officials went about trying to determine how he ended up being hung by the collar in a coat closet in his classroom.

Dominic, a third-grader at Pennypacker Elementary School, Washington Lane and Thouron Avenue in West Oak Lane, was found by his teacher at 9:30 a.m. in the walk-in coat room. He was hanging from a coat hook, which had snagged the back collar of his polo shirt, a district spokesman said.

The hook was four feet from the floor, the spokesman said, and it was not clear how Dominic had gotten up there. He was alone in the coat room, and none of the 20 other students in his class saw him in the room, said Vincent Thompson, the spokesman.

Inititially, police said they were investigating an attempted suicide, but hours later changed that to an "investigation of injuries."
(snip/...)

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/11498799.htm

[UCLA Dem]

14. wow. thats crazy. a 9-year old possibly attempting suicide.

prayers to the family and friends.

[underthedome]

32. How big is this classroom, no sounds of a struggle? *nm

nm

[ET Awful]

11. My guess is that some school bully types

were picking on him and put him up there.

[bobthedrummer]

12. I don't want to say wtf, but

:wtf:
That poor kid, who would do such a thing? I doubt he did this to himself.

[Megahurtz]

13. OMG.

:wtf:

[nonconformist]

15. OMG!!

This is terrible.

I don't think I can take many more of these stories about 9 yr olds. As a parent of a 9 yr old boy myself, it boggles the mind.

Sounds to me like an older child or perhaps adult put him up there. Let's hope the investigation finds who did this, and pray that little boy makes it. :(

[donheld]

16. Bless the beasts and the children

give them shelter from the storm, keep them safe keep them warm.
Light their way when the darkness surrounds them,
give them love let it shine all around them.

[Terre]

17. OMG! is RIGHT!!

I think it's an older or bigger child that did this as well. And if it was, where the heck was the teacher?

This kind of crap is just unacceptable.

[xchrom]

20. so, how would he get himself up there?

and in that exact position?

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. Either he used levitation, or someone taller than him "helped".

Wonder who the taller person or persons will turn out to be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. My guess would be bullies, possibly slightly older children

just old enough to be bigger, not old enough to have any common sense.

The other kids are probably afraid to tell on the bullies.

[mom cat]

25. Or a deranged "adult".

[Nabia2004]

26. ...sounds like kids being dumb

I often wonder how we every make it too adult.

[booksenkatz]

27. Wait, the hook is FOUR FEET off the floor?

That's not high at all, an average 9-year-old is much taller than 4 feet. My 5-year-old is taller than that. Yet everyone's talking about this child being able to "reach up that high." Is "four feet" a misprint? I'm missing something here.

[Career Prole]

28. You've got a tall five year-old there!

http://kidshealth.org/misc_pages/charts/BOYS2_20years1.pdf

[booksenkatz]

30. Actually my 5-year-old is exactly 47 inches tall (4 feet minus 1")

I was wrong to say "taller than that." And yes, he's definitely tall for his age! The third tallest in his kindergarten class.

Nevertheless, I'm still having trouble envisioning what happened with that coat hook with the older boy...? My nephew is that age, and he'd have to lean down in order to choke himself. Am I just in a tall group here, or what?

It's terribly sad, at any rate.

[bleedingheart]

29. I went to school with some really nasty bullies in my day

there were kids that would spit on you, pummel you and even threaten to push you in front of cars at the bus stop....and this was in a middle class suburban neighborhood.

I can't imagine what the hell happened here but I know that my own son was stabbed in the chest with a pencil at school. The boy in question was given detention.

[Maat]

31. Detention? That's it?

Wow. And when I was a social worker, I saw kids given suspensions for far less than that.

I'm sorry - not to offend - but this is why I located a small private school for my kid; it's no guarantee. But I know the principal and the teachers well - and the kids.

I just became too discouraged about the attention given and consistency in behavior on the part of the typical staff.