Fears over choke craze in school after boy of 11 dies
AN 11-year- old boy found hanged in his bedroom may have died taking part in a choking game that was popular at his school, an inquest heard yesterday.
It is feared Asad Khan was killed participating in a craze called the ‘Good Kids’ High’.
The game involves children harming themselves as a drug-free means of achieving a high.
It follows claims Asad was being paid to do homework for other pupils, and that he was being bullied. The youngster died just three weeks after starting the Beckfoot Upper Heaton secondary school in Bradford.
Ruth Bundey, the lawyer for Asad’s family, said it could raise questions about the school’s duty of care if they did not inform children of the dangers of the game.
She added that pupils aware of the craze may be scared to come forward and speak about it.
‘Very bright and sensitive’
Speaking outside Bradford coroner’s court, Miss Bundey said: ‘We only learnt today from an officer that he visited the school six months ago and at the time of Asad’s death a particular game was all over the school.’
The choking game claims came from a student manager who spoke to police, she said.
‘Whether there was pressure on Asad to play this extraordinarily dangerous game we don’t know, but we have to find out,’ she added. ‘We have to, through this inquest, alert other parents to the dangers to their children.’ Miss Bundey also said that the police had discovered CCTV footage that may shed light on the lead-up to the boy’s death.
Asad was found by his mother Farheen Khan, 37, after she forced her way into his bedroom at their home in Bradford on September 28 last year.
Relatives have said the ‘very bright, sensitive and loving’ schoolboy had been bullied, and was reluctant to go to school.
In a pre-inquest review in January, the coroner heard Asad’s mother had raised concerns about the amount of homework he was doing in the days before his death.
In a statement to the coroner, Asad’s father, market stall holder Mahmood Asif, 42, said: ‘Leading up to Asad’s death, his mum had seen Asad doing quite a lot of homework.
‘Mum asked him why he got so much homework and he said he was doing it for someone and he was going to get small payment.’
Mr Asif told the coroner that two of Asad’s friends had come forward recently to corroborate the suggestion that he had been bullied by other students.
The also court heard that Asad told a friend from his local mosque that he was being bullied at school.
Miss Bundey applied for the hearing to be adjourned so the choking game claims could be investigated, but this was denied by coroner Martin Fleming.
However, the family’s lawyer announced they would challenge that decision in the High Court, and the hearing has now been adjourned until next month pending a judicial review.
Mr Fleming said: ‘I am provisionally going to adjourn this inquest for 28 days until July 3.
‘It is my view that we have all of the appropriate witnesses in court today. This is an adjournment on speculative grounds.’
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