Boy, 12, Dead After School Bullying
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ABC News(PHILADELPHIA) — A 12-year-old boy has died after being placed in a medically-induced coma following a fight at his suburban Philadelphia school.
Bailey O’Neill died Sunday, a family member who did not want to be named, confirmed to ABC News. Bailey turned 12 on Saturday. He was taken off life support Sunday morning.
In January, Bailey was involved in a fight at Darby Township School in Upper Darby, Pa., west of Philadelphia. The boy was allegedly jumped by two classmates, one of whom hit him in the face several times fracturing his nose, his father Rob O’Neill told ABC affiliate WPVI.
Bailey was knocked down in the incident, his father told the station, which caused a concussion. From then on, something with the 6th grader wasn’t right, his father said.
“He was sleeping. He was moody. He wasn’t himself. He was angry a little bit. He wasn’t really eating,” Rob O’Neill told WPVI last month.
The boy was living primarily in the custody of his mother Jina, and his father had visitation rights, a family friend told ABC News.
After being treated for his injuries from the altercation, Bailey soon took a turn for the worse and began having seizures. A friend of his parents said that Bailey was having refractory status epilepsies, a condition in which the brain is in a state of persistent seizure.
Bailey had to have a blood transfusion after getting pneumonia, the family friend confirmed, and doctors at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children put Bailey in a medically-induced coma.
The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office says it has opened an active criminal investigation, according to WPVI. Southeast Delco School District officials have said the district is cooperating with the investigation.
The school’s principal didn’t return a call to ABC News.
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