Child safety charity set up in memory
Fri, February 10, 2006
Eight years after the hanging death of a schoolboy on a
locker-room hook, his parents have created a charity to prevent the deaths
of others.
The MCBN Children's Association, in memory of Myles Neuts, is to
be launched today at the YMCA's Children Safety Village.
MCBN stands for both Make Children Better Now and Myles Casey
Benson Neuts, said Alan Marshall, who helped organize today's press
conference.
"Mike Neuts will be talking about some positive things that
will come out of Myles Neuts's death," Marshall said yesterday.
The new charity will enable the Neuts family to raise money and
develop programs in their efforts to help children, he said.
Neuts could not be reached for comment yesterday. He and his wife
have spent the last eight years advocating for children's safety.
The charity is already registered with Revenue Canada and has a
board of directors.
Neuts is also expected to announce his support for a safety hook
developed by London's Henkel Diversified Inc. The Henkel hook is advertised
as a inexpensive, yet strong, hook that holds articles up to 12.7
kilograms, but releases if more weight is put on.
The hook automatically resets once the article falls off.
Myles, 10, was found hanging from a coat hook in a washroom stall
at St. Agnes school in Chatham on Feb. 6 1998. He died six days later.
A coroner's inquest could not determine how he ended up on the
hook.
The inquest jury recommended all hooks be removed from school
washrooms.
The Education Ministry told school boards in 2001 to remove hooks
from elementary school washrooms. The Thames Valley district school board
complied, but in 2004, a four-year-old girl was found hanging from a
cloakroom hook at London's Victoria public school.
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