A sixth-grade Delaware County boy involved in a schoolyard fight in early January died over the weekend. The boy had been hospitalized since late January, and kept in a coma because he was having seizures.
Last Friday, his family made the excruciating decision to remove him from life support.
Bailey O'Neill had turned 12-years-old the day before he died.
Why he died is the subject of intense scrutiny. Police and the Delaware County District Attorney's office are looking into whether he was bullied at school. But so far investigators say they have no evidence of that.
Bailey made a big impression in his few short years. A Facebook page in his honor is testimony to that. A neighbor remembered Bailey as the kind of boy she would want as her own son. "He was always polite, the kindest little boy you would ever want to know," Joyce Neroni told Fox 29. Neroni remembered hearing Bailey say his favorite expression to anyone he encountered. "He loved to say Joy to the World everybody," Neroni said. "He was so sweet and so kind. He never hurt anybody."
Bailey fought more than six weeks to stay alive. On January 10th, Bailey and another boy got into a playground fight, while both were at school. It happened at Darby Township Elementary. Bailey was injured, but he wasn't hospitalized until two weeks later when he began having seizures. Doctors induced a coma. But Bailey never recovered. He passed away on Sunday. "It's such a shame he died this way, right after his 12th birthday. And why?" Neroni wondered out loud.
Outside his school Monday, the flag flew at half staff in his honor. Police also re-interviewed a half-dozen people, everyone from teachers' aides to the boy who fought Bailey that day. But police, who also looked at school records, say they have not found any evidence that Bailey had been bullied prior to that fight. No consolation to his mother, who will have to bury her oldest child. "It's such a shame," Neroni said, tears forming in her eyes. "A child should not die before their parents. That's not right."
Officials at Bailey's school would not comment, referring us to district officials, who did not return our calls. A statement on the district's website says it is cooperating with local authorities. The Delaware County District Attorney's office says it's awaiting autopsy results before deciding on whether to file any charges.
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Bailey O'Neill, pictured, died Sunday after being in a coma for several weeks.
