Police: Student Found Dead in Fla. School

[CrimsonTide4]

Police: Student Found Dead in Fla. School
Tue Feb 3,11:22 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By CORALIE CARLSON, Associated Press Writer

MIAMI - A 14-year-old boy was apparently stabbed to death in a school bathroom Tuesday, and a schoolmate was charged with first-degree murder.


Jaime Rodrigo Gough was cut with a sharp object and bled to death, said Miami-Dade School spokesman Mayco Villafana. Other students at Southwood Middle School found Gough's body around 8:30 a.m., officials said.


Michael Hernandez, 14, was charged after he was interviewed for several hours, police said. It was not immediately known if Hernandez's parents, who were with him during the interview, had hired an attorney.


Chief Pete Cuccaro of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department said the suspect and victim "knew each other very well," but refused to elaborate.


Gough died of a neck wound, police said. A weapon was found.


Juveniles charged with first-degree murder in Florida are charged as adults.


Other children at the school were locked in their classrooms with their teachers as a precaution for most of the day before they were sent home in the afternoon. More than 150 worried parents gathered outside.

Antonio Gough, Jaime's uncle, said his nephew was a good student who played baseball, the violin and the flute, and was not a troublemaker.


"I still can't believe this can happen," Antonio Gough said.


The boy's mother, Maria, collapsed after hearing of her son's death and was briefly hospitalized, according to a cousin.


Larishea Bivens, an eighth-grader who said she has known Jaime for five years, said he was a shy boy who often was bullied by students.


"He was nice, smart, but they used to pick on him a lot," she said.


Southwood opened in 1976 as the county's first magnet school, specializing in visual and performing arts for students in grades six, seven and eight. It has more than 1,500 students.


On the Net:
Southwood Middle School: http://www.dade.k12.fl.us/southwood/

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So much hatred in the world.