Video raises concerns about boy’s suicide
Footage shows 8-year-old lying on bathroom floor, being poked at Ohio school
CINCINNATI— Gabriel Taye can be seen lying on the bathroom floor for several minutes.
A school surveillance video shows other students nudging or poking Gabriel with their feet as the 8-yearold lay motionless. At one point, three students can be seen standing over Gabriel. One of them, a boy wearing a blue sweater, raises his leg until his knee was at waist level before walking away. For about six minutes, no one helped Gabriel — until an assistant principal walked in.
Earlier, Gabriel is seen shaking hands with another student at Carson Elementary. That’s when he suddenly fell to the ground. In the video, you can see Gabriel’s motionless legs from the bathroom entrance as oth- er students walk past him.
Gabriel would kill himself two days later.
The Jan. 24 incident was recorded in a grainy and choppy 24-minute surveillance video that school officials released Friday, a day after the county coroner told a local radio station that her office is reopening the investigation into Gabriel’s death.
In a statement posted with the video, Cincinnati Public Schools says Gabriel told school officials that he “fell.” He later told them he “fainted.”
“At no point did Gabriel indicate that he had been hit, yanked, pulled, pushed or assaulted in any way,” school officials said in their description of the video. “He had no visible abrasions and there had been no report of a fight of any kind.”
But a Cincinnati police detective who had viewed the video earlier painted a different picture.
As Gabriel was shaking the hands of the other student, the boy yanked him to the ground and appears to “celebrate and rejoice in his beha- viour,” according to the officer’s email description of the video reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer and obtained independently by the Washington Post. Students stepped over his body, pointing, mocking, nudging and kicking him, the detective said. School officials said the detective’s description mischaracterized the incident. Gabriel’s mother, Cornelia Reynolds, however, says someone hurt her son.
“I feel he was cheated. I feel robb- ed,” Reynolds said in a statement Friday. “I will fight every day, every second of every minute. I am my son’s voice and it will be heard. As Gabe’s mother, it’s my obligation to make sure that this will never happen again. No, this will not go away.”
School officials said they were concerned about the length of time that Gabriel lay on the floor and the district is reviewing procedures regarding adult supervisions in the restrooms. But they also said employees “immediately followed protocol by calling the nurse to evaluate Gabriel,” and they contacted his mother and advised her to take the boy to the hospital even though his vital signs were normal. The family denies that claim. Branch said Gabriel was nauseated and vomiting on the evening of the Jan. 24 incident. His mother took him to the hospital, where she was told the boy had a stomach flu. Gabriel didn’t go to school the following day, but went back on Jan. 26. That day, he would come home from school, go to his room and hang himself with his own neckties.
Gabriel’s death came amid a spike in youth suicides in Hamilton County, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Thirteen deaths were recorded for 2016 and seven so far this year.
Gabriel didn’t show signs of medical or mental-health issues, Branch said.
Questions still remain on how a boy whom school officials described as “an outstanding young man” would decide to end his own life.
“People need to know that truth and help fix this epidemic in our society by spreading awareness and speaking up,” Branch said. “Parents, it’s OK to tell your children to reach for help when someone is hurting them, whether it’s at school, outside, home or anywhere.”