Boy's death in school bathroom attributed to game

[October 03, 2008]  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A 7-year-old Texas boy found dead hanging from a hook in a school bathroom in February may have been playing a game called "run and jump," according to a police report.

Students at the Not Your Ordinary School charter campus told police after the death of Tevin Park-Flowers that boys sometimes ran along benches lining the walls of the bathroom.

Students called the game "run and jump" because they liked to jump from bench to bench and try to touch the ceiling, according to the report released Thursday.

Tevin had been excused from a school assembly Jan. 30 to go to the bathroom. When he didn't return, a male teacher went looking for him. He found Tevin caught on a hook by his shirt. The boy died at the hospital two days later.

Police said the shirt collar had cut off his oxygen. They also considered suicide or homicide but found no evidence to support either possibility.

An attorney for Tevin's parents said he had "lingering questions" about the boy's death.

"It just doesn't make sense the way that they have described it based on the physical evidence," attorney Dan Ross told the Austin American-Statesman.

[Associated Press]

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