EVERETT — Extra counselors will be at Silver Firs Elementary School on Monday after a weekend accident in a sandbox left a 10-year-old Everett boy in critical condition at Children’s Hospital in Seattle.
A relative identified the boy as Cody Porter, a fifth-grader at the Everett school.
Porter was playing with five friends, all between the ages of 8 and 10, in a backyard sandbox on Saturday morning in the 13800 block of 59th Avenue SE southeast of Everett, said Rebecca Hover, a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
He was being buried in sand when his playmates realized he wasn’t breathing, dug him out and went for help, Hover said. Adults were home at the time.
“Sheriff’s detectives have interviewed all the children present at the time of the incident as well as their parents and believe this was a tragic accident,” Hover said Sunday.
Cody’s half-brother, 30-year-old Joshua Quantrille, said the boy was playing with Quantrille’s three sons and other children on Saturday in the back yard of a home belonging to a family friend, according to an Associated Press report.
Quantrille said his children told him Cody came up with the idea that they should bury him, head first, in the sand.
Quantrille said the children came up with the idea from a cartoon they watch on television, the Associated Press reported.
Quantrille also said Cody was buried about from his head to his chest. At some point, he began thrashing around, but the children apparently thought he was playing. They then dug him out and called for help.
Cody was first taken to an Everett hospital and later to Children’s Hospital. The incident was reported about 11 a.m. Saturday.
School leaders at Silver Firs Elementary spent Sunday breaking the news to teachers and other staff and planning for how to talk to and console students Monday.
“We are ready with extra counselors and extra help at Silver Firs and they will be there for as long as necessary,” said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman. “They will be there for students or adults who might need someone to talk to or visit with about the accident.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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