An eight-year-old boy's bullying was captured on his school's Security camera. The video showed that a bigger boy grabbing him and slamming him into a wall, then punching him several times. Gabriel Taye could be seen lying unconscious on the floor. The lawyer representing the boy's family showed a video of other children stepping over him and even pushing him with their feet. Two days later he was dead from suicide by hanging. According to law officials, he was found hanging from his bunk bed with a neck-tie around his neck.
Boy was unconscious for 7 minutes after being beaten
However, this new information has raised some viable questions because the school administration did not disclose the beating incident to his parents. The boy was unconscious for about seven minutes, which should have been reported. Gabriel Taye's death could have been avoided if his mother had known about the bullying and the incident that left him unconscious for seven minutes.
On Friday, the school's representative said the child did not alert faculty of any bullying. Taye's mom said she learned of the bathroom incident after her lawyers showed her an email from the Cincinnati police crime division. The police report stated what they saw of the incident -- captured on video.
Legal advisors are asking why the school did not report the incident. A representative from the school said they found out about the recording a few days after the investigator asked for the surveillance recordings of that day.
The 24-minute video showed a child harassing other students, and, after Gabriel went over in an attempt to shake his hand, he threw him into the wall and began punching him.
Afterward, Gabriel was seen lying on the floor unconscious.
Video shows staff attending to unconscious boy
The video footage shows the vice-principal (accompanied by the nurse and other school officials) arriving in the bathroom four and a half minutes after the incident occurred. Gabriel was then helped to his feet and taken to the nurse's office before his mother was notified to take him to see a doctor.
On Thursday, Lakshmi Sammarco, the district attorney revealed to Cincinnati radio WLW that she asked police to do a thorough investigation to ascertain if anyone at the facility could be charged with Gabriel's suicide. According to Sammarco, if the school had notified the parent that the boy was unconscious for seven minutes, maybe he could have been prompted to disclose that he was being bullied by another child.
