Grade School Suicide?

Story broke yesterday in Evanston, Illinois about a 10-year old boy that was found unresponsive in his school bathroom. Hanging from a hook. He was found by someone on the maintenance staff that immediately started CPR. The boy died at the hospital.

When the story first broke, there were no details about who might have seen him or talked to him or what might have happened at school that day. My gut feeling was that it had been a prank gone bad. A bunch of kids copying something they had seen on television. But really – no one heard him call for help?

This morning, we learned that it appeared to have been a suicide. The boy, with previous “psychological” history, was scolded by a teacher for something or other. He literally told the teacher he was going to hang himself.

At first, I was actually relieved. It wasn’t stupid kids, wasn’t some horrible bullying story. Then I remembered that it was a 10-year old boy.

I don’t pretend to understand the path of despair that suicidal people travel before making the attempt. But a 10-year old? How does a 10-year old get there?

You can read more about the incident here.