Tragic and Disturbing: Texas 9 year old boy hangs himself in school restroom

A 9-year-old boy was found hanged in the bathroom of a Dallas-area elementary school in an apparent suicide, police said. Counselors were on hand Friday for students and parents.

Authorities in The Colony say the fourth-grader was found by staff at Stewart's Creek Elementary School on Thursday afternoon. Lt. Darren Brockway said that the boy "had reportedly hung himself in a bathroom" and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Autopsy results are pending.

Police in The Colony, about 20 miles north of Dallas, are investigating the circumstances of Montana Lance's death but don't expect any criminal charges. The school district confirmed the basics of the incident but declined to comment further because of privacy concerns.

A team of grief counselors met people at the school Friday. They will be available to students, parents, teachers and staff through next week, said Lewisville Independent School District spokeswoman Karen Permetti.

Some parents were concerned that they did not learn about the incident from the school, but Permetti said the facts were sketchy until about the time school let out Thursday. The school is sending a letter about the incident home with students Friday, Permetti said.

"We do want to stress to our parents to encourage their children to discuss their feelings because children all process their grief differently," Permetti said.

Suicides among young children are extremely rare. There were on average just 10 suicides a year among 10-year-olds between 1999 and 2005, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Early last year in suburban Chicago, a 10-year-old boy hanged himself on a restroom coat hook. In 2008, a 7-year-old boy in Austin died after being hanged by his shirt from a coat hook in a dressing room, though authorities said he might have been playing a game in which students jumped from bench to bench while trying to touch the room's ceiling.

"He was always really nice," said fifth grader Jordan Kreidler, who went to school with Lance.

"He would never ever do that," Keeley Blackwell said to CBS station KTVT-TV, adding that she's walked home with the boy before.

As word spread at Stewarts Creek Elementary School, students who knew Lance were shocked. Police said that the boy was found hanging in a school bathroom by a staff member.

Lance was taken to Baylor Medical Center in Carrollton where he was pronounced dead.

Horizon's senior pastor Brian Bradford was there with the family. "There's nothing you can say or do that can change the situation," he said.

Bradford said that the Lances are active members in the church and the community. "It's a very giving family that has really experienced a tragic loss today," said Bradford.

Many now struggle to understand exactly how this happened. Friends and those who knew the boy said that he was often teased. "He was just bullied too much," Blackwell said. "Some of the things that people would say were harsh."

The school district denies that, and as the school and family cope with this tragedy, the Lances church pastor said the boy's parents did everything right. "The most important thing you can do is exactly what these parents did, take them to church and pray with them and love them," Bradford said, "because you never know when life may change, and change in a drastic way."

KTVT-TV asked a district spokesperson how the boy was left unsupervised long enough for this to happen at school. She declined to answer that question and said that the district will make an official statement on Friday.

A letter will also be sent home with all Stewarts Creek Elementary School students on Friday, notifying parents of the incident. Meanwhile, grief counselors will be made available at the school. source