8-Year-Old Boy Kills Himself Days After Video Captured Him Beaten Unconscious by Bully
The Cincinnati Public School system plans to release surveillance video showing bullies at an elementary school beating an 8-year-old boy unconscious. Two days after he was attacked, Gabe Taye committed suicide.
On January 24, Taye walked into a bathroom in Carson Elementary School and witnessed a group of bullies hurting another student. Moments later, an unidentified child thrust Taye into a wall, knocking him unconscious, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
"A boy is in the bathroom punching and threatening and assaulting other children, and the son of my client walks in," family lawyer Jennifer Branch told WLWT. "[Gabe] actually attempts to shake this assailant's hand, and this assailant pulls him forward and slams him into the wall and he is knocked unconscious for seven-and-a-half minutes."
Previous reports of the incident alleged several students beat Taye; however, Cincinnati Public Schools released a statement which claimed the video refutes the assertions.
After Taye’s assailant knocked him to the ground, the other students would “step over, point, mock, nudge, kick, etc.,” on him while he remained unconscious, according to a police report obtained by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Two days after the attack, Taye hung himself from his bunk bed. Before his suicide, the school was not forthright about the attack. At first a school official called Taye's mother, Cornelia Reynolds, and told her he had fainted.
When she picked Taye up from school, he vomited twice, prompting her to take him to the hospital. He continuously complained that his stomach hurt, yet neither Taye nor his mother knew why.
"If the school had told her what had happened to him in the bathroom, that he was unconscious for such a long period of time, she would have taken him to the hospital immediately, reported that to the medical professionals, and she would have called police," Branch told the Enquirer.
In the school district’s statement, it was revealed no charges would be filed.
“Though the connection between this incident at school and Gabriel's suicide are not clear, the district shared this video with police investigators at the time of the incident. Their investigation has concluded and no charges were filed,” read the statement obtained by the Enquirer.
As of now, the surveillance tape is getting edited and the district plans to release it by Friday.