Crime & Safety

Updated: Somers Grieves Over the Death of a Child

An 8-year-old boy died on Monday after a bicycle accident and counselors are ready to assist those in mourning.

Counselors were in position in all the Somers schools on Tuesday morning following the tragic death of an 8-year-old boy on Monday.

Aidin Hannan, a third-grade student at , was when he had an accident. He suffered a traumatic head injury and later died.

“We’ve set up counseling this morning at each of the schools because the little guy had a sister at the middle school and a sister at the high school as well,” Superintendent of Schools Maynard Suffredini said. “I pulled counselors from the high school, as well as our school psychologists, our social workers, and additional counselors to go down to the elementary school.”

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He said that a faculty meeting was held at the elementary school before school on Tuesday and they talked about the protocols in terms of what needed to be done to inform the staff, to work with the staff, be support for the students and reach out to them, and to provide necessary counseling for students and staff.

Suffredini said that they will monitor the situation and see if there’s a need for additional grief counseling.

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“Depending upon that, we’ll make a decision if we need to bring more in,” he said.

People all throughout the school district are taking this tragedy hard.

“It’s just a devastating thing,” Suffredini said. “In our business, it’s pretty traumatizing. We work with children all the time and you personalize all these kinds of experiences. Your heart goes out to the family and the friends and what they’re enduring. Everybody feels the loss, I don’t care who you are. Whether you’re the super, a secretary, teacher, custodian, bus driver – everybody is feeling the loss of this child. It’s pretty devastating. My heart aches for this family. It’s just an awful situation.”

Somers Elementary School Principal Ralph Riola said that Hannan was a well-liked youngster who always seemed to have a welcoming smile on his face. 

“His enthusiasm for life was contagious,” Riola said. “He will be missed by not only his classmates but also the adults who worked with him here at Somers Elementary School. Our condolences go out to his loving family at this most difficult of times.” 

Riola said that the staff has been carefully monitoring student reaction to this tragedy. 

“District social workers and school psychologists have met with students who were influenced most by Aidin’s death,” he said. “The staff at Somers Elementary School will continue to be vigilante about monitoring student reaction in the days and weeks ahead.”

According to Greg Stokes, pastor of the Cornerstone Church of Connecticut, where the Hannan’s go, Hannan was riding his bike with two other children who were older than he was. When they went up over the curb onto the sidewalk, he tried to follow. Stokes said that he hit the curb and bounced over a trashcan and hit his head.

Stokes says it is his understanding that Hannan died while en route to Baystate Medical Center.

“It’s definitely a sad thing, no doubt about it,” he said. “He was such a great little boy. Our church is very casual dress, but this boy, every time he comes to church, he wants to put on a shirt and tie. He comes in and as soon as he finds you, he gives you a hug and a high five. Just an incredible little boy. It’s just hard to imagine him not being with us now.”

Stokes said that Hannan was “all boy” and would go off with the other children and play after church – with all of them returning with a little bit of mud on them.

Hannan wasn’t wearing a helmet, but neighbor Brianna Montoya doesn’t place blame.

“He should have been wearing a helmet, but you can’t hover over your children all of the time,” she said. “He wasn’t out alone. It was still daylight out. He was riding bikes with older kids that his parents knew, and that he often played with. This was just a terrible accident, resulting in an unimaginable loss. My heart goes out to the Hannan’s, and all of the children who have lost a dear friend.”

Montoya lives up the street from the Hannan’s and Aidin and his older sister would come over and play and hang out with her 5-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son.

“Aidin wasn’t just kind to Analisa, but showed an interest in Oliver, and always tried to make him laugh,” she said. “He even wanted to hold him, which I thought was unusually sweet for a boy his age.”

Montoya said that Hannan was raking leaves for some of the neighbors, to earn a little bit of spending money, and always liked to be helpful with the smaller children.

She said that recently, her daughter was being bullied by some other boys on the school bus, and the principal asked Hannan to sit with her on the way home from school to deter the other boys from bothering her.

“He even told Analisa stories about times he was bullied when he was younger, and told her that sometimes kids are just mean, and that it didn’t mean that there was anything wrong with her,” she said.

Montoya said that her daughter thought the world of Hannan.

“When I told Analisa what happened, she asked me if Aidin was going to be an angel now,” she said. 

Right now the biggest thing is why, Stokes said.

“You can have all the theological background you can have in your life or be religious or be a person of faith, and you’re still going to say, ‘Why?,’” he said. “You just don’t understand it. That makes life hard sometimes.”


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