Montana Lance, 9, Found Hanged at Stewart's Creek Elementary School Near Dallas

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

(CBS/Lisd.net)

THE COLONY, Texas (CBS/AP) Grief counselors are on hand today in Stewart's Creek Elementary School after 9-year-old Montana Lance was found hanged in a bathroom in an apparent suicide.

Photo: Stewart's Creek Elementary School.

Police say the fourth-grader was found by school staff Thursday.

Lt. Darren Brockway said the boy "had reportedly hung himself in a bathroom" and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Autopsy results are pending with the Tarrant County medical examiner's office.

Police in The Colony, about 20 miles north of Dallas, are investigating the circumstances of Montana Lance's death — but say they don't expect any criminal charges.

The school district confirmed the basics of the incident but declined further comment out of respect for the family's privacy.

The school is sending students home today with a letter about the incident.

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by tortoiseshell123 June 8, 2012 12:50 AM EDT: I think people need to be more outraged about the fact that the staff was unable to keep a 9 year old from harming himself on school property. He was IN the school for heaven's sake. A kid locks himself in a bathroom and you think he's gonna harm himself, you get into that bathroom. This is unbelievable.; Reply to this comment


by Nicoleisamazing1996 January 21, 2011 11:28 PM EST: I saw him once at a store, :(
That is so sad, :(
Bullying needs to stop.; Reply to this comment


by rockcutr January 25, 2010 8:47 AM EST: This is typical of the sadistic teachers and administrators of Texas schools. They apparantly are in favor of bullying, teasing, and character assinations. Well done. NOW ya'll have gone and killed a kid....How's that workin for ya? If you are into child abuse, become a Texas teacher. The teacher with the most broken paddles on the wall wins. But this Colony hive of indifference is the most insensitive useless death ever. The teachers will not be taking the blame here. As to them clearly this is due to teasing of fellow students. I think suprentendants and principals need to go down for this action. This is their version of no child left behind.; Reply to this comment


by rockcutr January 25, 2010 8:47 AM EST: This is typical of the sadistic teachers and administrators of Texas schools. They apparantly are in favor of bullying, teasing, and character assinations. Well done. NOW ya'll have gone and killed a kid....How's that workin for ya? If you are into child abuse, become a Texas teacher. The teacher with the most broken paddles on the wall wins. But this Colony hive of indifference is the most insensitive useless death ever. The teachers will not be taking the blame here. As to them clearly this is due to teasing of fellow students. I think suprentendants and principals need to go down for this action. This is their version of no child left behind.; Reply to this comment

by PAAST January 24, 2010 1:25 AM EST

We attended Stewart's Creek the same time Montana Lance did, but we pulled our children out because of all the abuses going on there. Abuses by the teachers/staff were the examples that children at Stewart's Creek had to follow; with such an example, is it any wonder that children learned to bully? Our children were bullied terribly there too. The district repeatedly dismissed parental concerns over things that occurred at the school often telling them that these were "isolated incidents" or that they had no record of any such thing. It is unthinkable that the conditions at Stewatr's Creek have become so unbearable to a child that suicide was the only way out.Unfortunately, with administrators who disregard or even invalidate both parent and student concerns, it can make one feel hopeless. There is a parents group that was started on the web years ago in response to what was happening at the school, unfortunately in the years since it's inception, little to nothing has changed. The site is http://www.firemissland.com
Our hearts go out to the Lance family during this horrible tragedy.Our biggest fear is that this too will be minimized and swept under the rug as another "isolated incident". It was never a question of If something like this would happen, but WHEN.

Reply to this comment


by cidaia January 25, 2010 4:35 AM EST: Every child in our public schools deserves a safe environment.

It's just wrong that teachers and administrators who would never tolerate harassment or bullying in their own workplace, and who would actively intervene if one of their co-workers was harassed, do nothing while the children under their care and protection are forced to put up with life-changing levels of harassment.

Unfortunately, abuse has become the norm in our public schools - so much so that objecting to it seems odd, as if we had all come to believe that somehow children are more resilient and able to withstand emotional abuse better than adults or something.


by aimhigh4 July 28, 2010 8:17 AM EDT: I just don't know if I believe it...are they so sure this child wasn't murdered...he was only 9 for God's sake.

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Montana Lance, 9, Found Hanged at Stewart's Creek Elementary School Near Dallas

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