8-year-old Boy Commits Suicide By Bullying And His Parents Sue The School

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

An eight-year-old boy took his own life apparently motivated by the fact that he could no longer bear being the target of bullying by his schoolmates.

Gabriel Taye committed suicide two days after being assaulted in the school bathroom to the point of unconsciousness for several minutes. Now, her parents have filed a lawsuit against Carson Elementary School in the Cincinnati, OH school district, for wrongful death and aggressive behavior.

Among other queues, they allege that those in charge of the primary school did not warn them of what was happening to Gabriel, their only son.

"These parents had no idea how dangerous their third grade school was," the parents' attorney, Jennifer L. Branch, said in the lawsuit. "They had no idea what was going on at Carson Elementary."

According to a video presented as evidence, little Gabriel went to the bathroom on January 24, 2017. Upon entering, he waved to another student and unexpectedly fell to the floor. His legs were visibly on camera at the entrance to the bathroom and you can see how other students surrounded and trampled him.

Finally, administrative staff came to the bathroom to help him. After being checked by the center nurse, Gabriel got up and was taken to another part of the school.

According to The Washington Post, a homicide detective who examined the video determined that a student wearing a red and gray jacket hit another in the stomach and a third in the face in an aggressive manner before Gabriel entered the bathroom. When Gabriel entered, the student pulled him to the ground.

"[The student seemed to] celebrate and rejoice in his behavior," Detective Eric Karaguleff wrote in an email sent to the assistant principal at the school.

According to the detective, the students taunted and kicked Gabriel for around five minutes, while lying unconscious.

"I witnessed behavior that I believe is bullying and that may rise to the level of criminal assault, but due to the apparent age of the children involved, my current opinion is that it might be better to treat it appropriately at the school level," the detective wrote in your mail.

Following the assault, the school nurse assured Gabriel's mother, Cornelia Reynolds, that the boy had passed out and that his vital signs were fine, not to mention the incident, according to the lawsuit.

Reynolds, for his part, asked his son what had happened, but Gabriel assured that he only remembered that he had fallen and hurt his belly.

That night, the little boy vomited twice, so his mother took him to the hospital and kept him home the next day. The day after, she sent him to school, a decision he wouldn't have made had he known what happened in the bathroom, the lawsuit claims.

The day Gabriel returned to school, two children stole his water bottle and tried to flush it down the toilet, which the boy reported to his teacher, who did not take the incident into account because she was unaware of the altercation in the bathroom, according to demand. That night Gabriel committed suicide.

Lawyers for the school district responded to the complaint, claiming that the school was not responsible for the boy's death. On the contrary, they noted, the staff was attentive and acted responsibly in the face of the situation in compliance with the policies relevant to these cases.