Bullied UK Teen Hit By Train As Classmates Watch In Horror — Was It A Prank-Gone-Wrong Or Suicide?
Was it suicide or a prank gone wrong?
Facebook A 14-year-old student in Surrey England is dead in an apparent suicide. Sam Connor was waiting at a train station with a number of his classmates when he stepped off the platform and lay down in the path of an oncoming train. The train was unable to stop and the boy was killed.
His classmates witnessed his death and went running to a store across the street where a shop worker said: “It was so sad. Children were running around crying and screaming. One young girl came in the shop in tears and was screaming ‘I’ve seen it all.' We looked out and saw the train on the platform and put two and two together. The kids on the platform didn’t know what to do.”
Now Sam’s family wonders if he was being bullied and the school and police have opened an inquest into the matter.
Who is Sam Connor? Read on for all the tragic details.
1. Death
According to the Sun, Sam was at the train station with about 50 other students from his school in Surrey, England when he handed his belongings to a classmate and lay down on the tracks,. It’s not clear from news reports if the train was already coming at the time he put himself in its path. Despite other students yelling his name, he remained in place and was struck by the train and killed.
The Daily Mail reports that passengers on the train recalled that another passenger tried to help, saying: 'What was particularly harrowing was there was a student paramedic who passed through the train and down on the tracks to help the boy. When she got down there she collapsed and burst into tears — it was just the most harrowing thing."
Sam's death is assumed to be a suicide.
2. Bullying concerns
Sam’s family is concerned that he might have been driven to suicide by bullying online. The Heavy noted that his stepmother told reporters: “My youngest daughter rang me on Monday and told me what had happened and says Sam had been bullied. My girls have said there was stuff said online about Sam. Lots of children are bullied but this must have been horrendous. If Sam was being bullied at school, then why weren’t the school doing anything?”
But the Daily Mail cites other sources who dispute the bullying accusations, saying: "He was joking with them as teenage boys do. It's a terrible accident and not deliberate. Sam was a quiet boy but popular and well liked. It is categorically untrue that Sam was bullied. He had a lovely group of friends who he was very close with. They were with him on Monday and are absolutely devastated."
Other students noted that Sam was worried about his final grades for the year and wondered if that contributed to what happened.
There were reports he was being bullied.
3. School response
The school remains adamant that it did not receive any reports related to Sam being bullied at school. The BBC reports that in a letter to parents, Salesian School teacher James Kibble addressed the issue by saying: “Some parents will understandably be worried about the references to bullying that have been made. We feel that it would be improper to respond to these at this time, given the family's request for information about the student not to be shared.” Kibble went on to write: ”You should know that the police and the local authority are currently carrying out separate investigations and safeguarding reviews and we are confident that bullying will not be an issue that is raised when the reports are published.”
4. Outside reports
Despite the school’s assurances that bullying wasn’t a problem in this case, an area man told school administrators that he has witnessed students physically attacking other students as well as a girl being teased about her sexuality. The man told the Sun: “There was a clear culture of bullying at the school going on at the time but to them, it appears the responsibility ends at the school gates.” The man said he would not send his own kids to that school after what he saw.
There were wittnesses to bullying.
5. A note
The Sun reported that Sam handed a classmate his phone and a scrap of paper with several named and his phone passcode on it, then went and lay down on the train tracks. It’s unclear at this time if the note was intended as a suicide note of it there was some information on his phone that would explain what happened. A family member told the Mail Online, “There were just a couple of names and the code to his phone. He was a smart kid, you know. I think if anything went wrong he’s put it in his phone and said, there you go. He handed the phone over and the password and also a couple of names when he handed it to his friend. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Sam left a note with friends.
6. A prank gone wrong
Some people are wondering if suicide was even Sam’s intention when he lay down on the tracks. After handing his phone to another student, a source close to some of the witnesses said “He was seen laughing and joking with his mates on the platform before what happened. His friends were with him at the time don’t believe that this was the outcome he necessarily wanted one tended to happen. A lot more will come out at the inquest I’m sure.”
Did he mean to commit suicde?
At this time the school is providing counselors to students. The railroad is similarly offering counseling to passengers and employees. We offer our deepest condolences to Sam’s friends and family.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.