text: Florida boy kills himself before starting new school . FORT LAUDERDALE , Fla. 1996-08-26 A 12-year-old Florida boy hanged himself in his backyard just hours before he was due to start at a new school on Monday , police said . Samuel Graham , who told his family earlier that he was nervous about starting at a new school because he feared teasing about his weight problem , had been due to spend his first day at Parkway Middle School Monday , police said . The boy was last seen alive Sunday night when he joined his two younger brothers and father in a bedtime prayer . Two younger brothers found him hanging from a tree early Monday morning . His father cut him down and tried to revive him but paramedics pronounced him dead when they arrived . The Broward County Sheriff 's Office found a step stool and a flashlight under the tree where the boy was hanged . They said there was no sign of foul play and that investigators believed the death was a suicide .