6-Year-Old Commits Suicide, ME Says
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David Knowles

David Knowles Writer
AOL News
(April 6) -- The death of a 6-year-old Oregon girl sent to her room after exchanging cross words with her mother has been classified as a suicide by a state medical examiner.

After her mother told her to go to her room, Samantha Kuberski, a first-grader in McMinnville, Ore., crawled into an unused crib, tied one end of a belt around her neck, the other on a bar of the crib, and hanged herself, according to reports.

The incident happened on Dec. 2, days shy of the girl's 7th birthday, making her the youngest person in Oregon history to have committed suicide.

But McMinnville police investigating Samantha's death are not convinced that the girl understood the consequences of her actions. They are challenging the classification of suicide. Samantha's death, they argue, was the result of an accident.

"The disagreement is a little more philosophical than it is material to the case," McMinnville police Capt. Dennis Marks told KGW News in Portland. "It's not that we disagree with the mechanics of what happened. It's the finding that a 6-year-old could form that kind of intent."

Dr. Clifford Nelson, Oregon's deputy medical examiner, made the suicide determination based on a variety of factors, including interviews with the grief-stricken family. And Dr. Karen Gunson, the chief medical examiner for the state, said that investigators learned that the girl's parents had warned all of their children of the dangers of playing with belts around their necks.

"Statements were made by the girl that indicated she was going to kill herself," Gunson told KGW News. "She had the means and she realized that if she put something around her neck that was dangerous and could cause death -- because her parents had told her that. My contention is that shows intent."

Samantha threatened to kill herself as she was sent to her room, according to her family.

Citing a respect for privacy for the family, Brad Berry, the district attorney in Yamhill County, has refused to release police records of Samantha's death to the press. He said that no criminal charges have been filed.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/6-year-old-oregon-girl-commits-suicide-medical-examiner-says/19428962

clever girl..how sad

don't sound right . 6 year olds hanging them selfs . takes to much thought to do it that way .

Some kids are smart.

The kid was SIX. That's too young to have the cognitive skills, conceptualization ability, or forethought required to comprehend the results of volitional asphyxiation as the logical result of her action. Kids do NOT, contrary to popular belief, have a formed concept of death at that age. They think they go to sleep for a while, wake up, and continue living. No matter what the parents told their kids, what they told them wasn't what the kids understood. It's a case of 'too much information' at too young an age. It's also not the kind of concept that can be conducted with the aid of an 'object lesson' like putting a belt around 'Kitty's neck, pulling it tight, and then waiting for 'Kitty' to wake up. That would result in a charge of animal cruelty and possibly child abuse - in today's climate, who knows what else would be added? Point is, this is not, unfortunate as it may be, a case of suicide. Accidental death at worst. Or, in our less-than-perfect world, the ultimate case of 'I'll show YOU!'.

Well, it does look like their efforts to warn their child against accidental death actually gave their child an idea of what actions to take.

I don't understand the focus on the philosophical debate about 'understanding death'. I don't think that most adults understand death, either.

Based on the claims being made, the kid at the very least associated the phrase "I'm going to kill myself!" with the act of tying a belt around her own neck.

gosh, tough piece. I do think about this during the day's after reading it.
It's weird but it turns me on and well you know! .. fill in the blanks... b..l..o..o..d

Some days, I'm very slow....

...this is similar, in a way, to asking whether we should charge a 6-year old with murder or a lesser charge, after they threaten to kill someone and then shoot them with a gun.

Does your average 6 year old know enough about life, death, actions and consequences to be given a murder charge?

I could absolutely believe there are many 6 years old out there in the world who would simply not get that shooting someone can cause a permanent and irreversible condition.