After his son's death, a father speaks out

HASTINGS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A family and a community are struggling to accept the news that a 15 year old child is gone.

15-year-old Donovin Prough died Friday afternoon. The teen was home alone, on spring break, when his dad says he put a blood-pressure cuff around his neck and pumped it up.

In Hastings, grief counselors were at the middle school on Tuesday to help the students through the tragedy. Prough lived in Dowling, about 20 minutes south of Hastings.

As students remembered Prough, his father, Donald Barnes, told Newschannel 3 that his son was a teenager who wanted to wear a badge after high school.

One look at Donald Barnes is enough to tell you the man has had an awful couple of days.

"He's always wanted to be a police officer," said Barnes, "we're always doing stuff together, he liked to work on his toys and gas powered . . . he loved his bikes and skateboards."

Police say the 15-year-old Prough strangled himself on Friday when he put a blood-pressure meter around his neck and pumped it up. The device belonged to his mother, a nursing student, and the boy's father says it was an accident.

"I am sure it was an accident," said Barnes, "I don't care what others are saying about it, it's ridiculous."

Barnes is concerned about rumors that his son was playing the choking game, where young people choke themselves to get a high.

"It's a rumor somebody started," said Barnes, "his friends never even heard of it, then come down and see me still, friends of his friends, they've never heard anything like that, if they haven't, he hasn't."

At Hastings Middle School, the crisis team has been working for the past few days to help teens talk about the tragedy.

"They're young enough that this is the first time somebody in their peer group has passed away," said Rich Satterlee, Hastings superintendent, "so they are learning how to cope with loss."

It's a loss that is felt strongly by Prough's father, who now has to bury his son.

"It's not supposed to happen," said Barnes, "the hardest think I have had to do."

State Police tell Newschannel 3 that they believe Prough's death was simply an accident.