The family of Aquan Lewis, a 10-year-old who allegedly committed suicide at Oakton Elementary School and died Feb. 4, 2009, is suing Evanston/Skokie School District 65, said Angel Marshall, the fifth grader’s mother.
Another student found Lewis hanging by the collar of his polo shirt on a hook in a school bathroom sometime after 2:40 p.m. that day, according to DAILY archives. The Evanston Police Department, a medical examiner, D65 and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigated the case at the time and individually determined that the cause of death was suicide, according to DAILY archives.
Lewis’ family members disagree.
‘I’m sure the school is trying to hide something,’ said Lallie Marshall, Lewis’ great-grandmother. ‘My great-grandson didn’t hang himself, somebody at the school did something to him and that’s my belief.’
Lallie Marshall said somebody should have been watching him at the time. She said that both Lewis’s mother and grandmother went to District 65 schools and she knows there were normally hall monitors and teachers keeping an eye on things, ‘not only on the playground but inside the school.’
‘The school is responsible because he was there at school,’ she said.
Angel Marshall said the lawsuit alleges the medical examiner and the police department conducted ‘a poor investigation,’ citing that they recorded evidence such as fingerprints and blood both inside and outside the stall door where the death took place but failed to examine it further.
‘What does that suggest?’ she asked, referring to the blood and fingerprints. ‘Does that mean something happened before he was hung?’
The police never came to her house to inspect Lewis’ room for signs of suicidal tendencies, she added, or contact her at all. One of the ‘main pieces of evidence’ pointing to suicide was that her son’s polo shirt was buttoned all the way to the top, which investigators said was unusual for the boy. Angel Marshall said she was surprised to hear this at D65’s findings hearing a few weeks after her son’s death.
‘That was never a question they asked me,’ she said. She later gave investigators photos of Lewis in similar polo shirts, buttoned to the top button.
Lewis’ mother maintains something may have happened to her son that could have been prevented. When Lewis was found, he hadn’t been under supervision for a period of five to 40 minutes, according to DAILY archives.
‘First off this is a public place,’ Angel Marshall said. ‘Who’s to say that someone didn’t do something to my son, someone who was looking for little kids and found him in the bathroom? They didn’t try to find out Aquan’s whereabouts, they didn’t try to look for him when they had enough time to.’
With the one-year anniversary of her great-grandson’s death this Thursday, it’s an especially painful time for Lallie Marshall, she said.
‘I feel sad because the fourth of February is next month and he’ll be gone a year,’ his great-grandmother said. ‘I think about him all the time because he was a lovely young man.’
D65 Communications Director Pat Markham said in an e-mail, ‘because we understand that this matter is in litigation, upon advice of legal counsel, the district has nothing to share at this time.’
Lewis’ attorney Todd A. Smith and EPD were unable to be reached immediately.
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