10-year-old boy found hanged at school

Sandra Rose February 4, 2009

What’s going on in Chicago? Almost daily we are inundated with horrible stories coming out of that one city.

Here’s the most recent: 10-year-old Aquan Lewis was found unresponsive on a restroom floor at Oakton Elementary School in Evanston yesterday around 3 PM.

Evanston is a suburb of Chicago.

The janitor who called 911 told police the boy was being resuscitated by other students who found him hanging by a hook in the restroom.

Only school officials and Chicago police believe the 5-foot, 100 lb. child jumped up on that hook and hung himself “by accident.”

The rest of us think foul play was involved.

Watch the sad video of Aquan’s mom begging for her son back.

Anna

This is sad. This is a prank, bullying gone wrong.
keely107

Dayum. What happened?
terika83

That is SOOOO sad…omg…
Shauny

I think someone was either bullying or playing and it turned deadly. The school is trying to cover their arses and I think that unless his mother pushes HARD this will be swept under the rug. They may know what happened but don’t want to be responsible or hold the boy/boys responsible for anything.

News reports said that this young man was gone unaccounted for at school for 10-15 minutes. He’s in elementary school. Did he ask to use the bathroom, was it lunch, I mean why is it that he could be gone that long and no one looked for him? That didn’t happen in my school. I heard that another student actually found him and a man on the news (an employee I think) said that he tried to do CPR but couldn’t bring him back. Why are they so quick to say this was an accident? Why would he “accidently” hook himself?
bk2atl

OMG! I can feel her pain, I swear. This is soo sad. Just a baby. SMH
Shauny

Sandra can you please update the story. The medical examiner is saying that this boy commited suicide. I just really do not believe that they are being truthful about this.

They are saying he was a star football player and a popular student. So a 10yr old thinks about going into the bathroom and hanging himself by a hook? Are they serious? I believe they are really trying to hide something. The ME comes back already and says not even that it’s an accident but that he commited suicide…OHHH I’m pissed.
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

My goodness! My son is 10 and I could not imagine what that child’s mother is going through.
Anna

Shauny Says:

Sandra can you please update the story. The medical examiner is saying that this boy commited suicide. I just really do not believe that they are being truthful about this.

They are saying he was a star football player and a popular student. So a 10yr old thinks about going into the bathroom and hanging himself by a hook? Are they serious? I believe they are really trying to hide something. The ME comes back already and says not even that it’s an accident but that he commited suicide…OHHH I’m pissed.
~~~~~~
How did he get on the hook. This is murder, someone in that school put the boy on the hook for thrills, punishment or for what ever reason. Now a little boy is dead and the school wants to add insult to injury. I know we are in such terrible economic times but I hope the parents sue the city to the max.
iscream

A friend of mine 12 yo daughter committed suicide last yr.. Hung herself as well. When the woman got home from work they (she and her young son) found her hanging. The son thought his sister was playing a jk.

Heartbreaking.
KaraZ

Accident and suicide cannot be acceptable reasons for this death. How high could he jump to get caught on the hook? And what does he have to be suicidal over?

They need to cut the bull.
Dhoward1913

News reports said that this young man was gone unaccounted for at school for 10-15 minutes. He’s in elementary school. Did he ask to use the bathroom, was it lunch, I mean why is it that he could be gone that long and no one looked for him? That didn’t happen in my school.

****************************************************

@Shauny

Please let’s get the whole story. I am a teacher and there are SEVERAL things that go on in school now that didn’t go on then. Teachers can’t be blamed for everything. We don’t know anything about this kids history so we shouldn’t make assumptions.

While suicide is not EVER acceptable, it is more common in kids than one may think. I hope that they do indeed figure this out. It’s pitiful.
ReadTheBlog

there are two definitions of hanging in relation to death. One is ‘Hanging by death is the one where you are hanged and your hyoid snaps, killing you instantly (noose knot on side), the other is Hanging until dead (noose on back), where you hang until you strangle and die.

I don’t think one can hang themselves with a knot on the side, suceessfully, thus with the knot on the back of the neck, and the clots in the eye tissue (common proof of suffocation/strangulation) maybe this is why he came to his conclusion.

Also, I’ve been taught that most men and boys that kill themselves do it violently (GSW to the head). It’s alwasy women who take pills and die pretty because they are afraid of how the person who finds them will find them.

Maybe the kid was on anti-depressents or that GD Ridalin that makes kids do stupid schitt, cause otherwise, It’s uncommon that a 10 y/o (black male, especially)will kill themselves.

I’on know, I just work with a bunch of old guys on their way out naturally.
starr

I have too many questions about this story……just toooo many.

I feel for his mother.
Shauny

@Dhoward1913,
I think that getting the whole story was the gest of my comments in this post. I think the school and police are being too quick in releasing the statements that they are making don’t you? I understand that you are a teacher and things have changed since I was in school BUT the questions I asked would be normal questions that should be asked in this case don’t you think?

The headline for this story on the news yesterday was boy found hanging on a hook. The ME comes out this afternoon and said he commited suicide. The school officials are still saying it was an accident. I know that kids commit suidcide and younger ones these days, but until they tell me that he had to stand on a chair, attach a rope, string, or whatever and let himself go, I think Evanston is not being truthful. That’s just my opinion.
starr

And why rule it a suicide so quickly???? We all know kids can be cruel, we all know there lots of things that go inside a school, but It must take ALOT for someone so YOUNG to decide to do something like this. I’m not just buyin it.
starr

I agree with Shauny. I knwo its a bathroom, but did they check for prints on this hook or whatever it was…..make sure there was absolutely no foul on the boy, that kind of csi stuff. Its just so hasty. And best believe the school board is trying to cover their arse. Damand a thorough investigation until there’s no way it could of been anything but a suicide.
diamondkierra05

This is straight B*LLSH*T!!!!! I will Kill someone to find my child dead…….AT SCHOOL
Shauny

o.k more updates per our local news coverage. They are saying that he was found in a boys bathroom stall, so the hook behind the door. Still not how he was hung, but that he was hanging.
brwnsugga4you

this is horrible on so many levels!
Certified

OMG…NO! This same thing happen here. The boy was 7…http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432201,00.html this is the link!
Kymystry

i can’t … just can’t … God please let the truth cme to light …
Daisy

African Americans have to realize sucide(sp) rates among young black men is on the RISE and has been for the last several years. Sad but true. I am not sure what went on here but my heart goes out to the mother. Bless her heart.
ladyrazor

Nope hell naw something smells too fishy to me and that shyt stank then a mutha mofo…Aint no way that boy did that I just dont believe that in my heart. And I’m with the mother why wasnt he accounted for?

@shauny

Co sign. You hit right over the head with your comment.
SHANIASMOMMA

this is what i just read ;

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — A preliminary coroner’s office ruling says
a 10-year-old boy reportedly found hanging from a coat hook at his suburban Chicago school took his own life.

The Cook County medical examiner office’s released a daily
ledger Wednesday afternoon that notes “hanging” and “suicide”
as the cause of death for fifth-grader Aquan Lewis.

Messages seeking further detail were left with the medical
examiner’s office and Evanston police.

Police had earlier refused to provide details about the case.
Evanston Police Commander Tom Guenther would only
call Aquan’s death “an isolated incident.”

Aquan was found unresponsive in a bathroom at Oakton Elementary about 3 p.m. Tuesday. The school’s janitor said the child had been pulled off a hook. He was pronounced dead Wednesday morning.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Associated Press
http://happynappyhead.blogspot.com Seattle Slim

My god this shit is heartbreaking. I would continue to investigate to be safe but I will not say it’s impossible that he committed suicide. Black people we need to not turn our backs to the mental illness that is a silent killer among us. It is not just a yt man’s disease. It is indiscriminate. Poor baby. I thought of suicide at that age for being picked on badly. I didn’t because my fam talked about suicide to me. Bless his soul
KAT

i don’t even know what to say……that is sad tho…and even more sad if he took his own life. what was so bad?
closetcolumnist

Awful. No words but awful. God bless his soul and his family.

10-year-old boy found hanged at school

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