Smiths Station leaders combat rumors around student jumping from 2nd floor of high school
Smiths Station High School authorities are working to combat misinformation that spread after a 16-year-old boy was hospitalized with a head injury sustained when he jumped Monday from the second-floor mezzanine of the school.
In interviews Tuesday with the Ledger-Enquirer, SSHS principal Brad Cook and Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones refuted the false rumors. The school wasn’t put on lockdown, and nobody at the school was attacked, they said.
Based on the narrative from Cook and Jones, here’s what happened:
While classes were being conducted, an assistant principal and two teachers tried to calm down the student who was dealing with an unspecified issue on the second floor, Cook said.
The student climbed over the safety railing and jumped without warning, Cook said.
“Nobody had any inclination that he was going to jump,” Cook said. “He didn’t make any threat. … We’re doing some investigating and trying to figure out what those issues were leading up to it.”
The boy landed on the lobby floor in front of the main office.
“Both my nurses, assistant principal, front office staff jumped in and started taking care of him and called 911,” Cook said. “Unfortunately, I was at a conference out of town and dealing with it in on the phone.”
A school resource officer and at least two other personnel from the sheriff’s office responded to the scene within a few minutes, Jones said.
The student had a head injury but was conscious when an ambulance took him to a Columbus hospital, Cook said. As of mid-morning Tuesday, the student still was hospitalized but “doing OK,” Cook said.
Cook said he is waiting for an agreement with the family to release anything more about the student’s condition.
Cook was supposed to be at the conference all week but returned Monday evening so he could be at the school Tuesday morning. Two counselors were at the school to comfort students or employees who needed to talk about the incident, Cook said.
“It affects people in different ways and comes and goes,” he said. “We’re just kind of monitoring everybody and making sure we’re all OK, especially those who first responded to it.”
‘Worst enemy’
Cook also is spending time clarifying the false rumors. A student showed him a social media post that alleged the teen had died by suicide.
“Social media is our worst enemy in this instance because our kids automatically sent messages out that we were in a lockdown,” he said. “We were at no time in a lockdown yesterday.”
Instead, the administration placed the school on “secure-your-area” status, Cook said. That means everybody must remain in their classroom, but instruction may go on as normal.
“We didn’t want anybody changing classes when we closed down that section of the school (to help the injured student),” Cook said.
“Our focus is on that child,” he said. “So the rumor mill explodes, and of course parents get mad at us because we’re not responding to their questions. That’s not our job at that moment. Our job is to take care of these kids. As things get settled and things are under control, then we put out information.”
Privacy law prohibits the administration from being more specific when the incident involves a particular student, Cook said.
Asked what he has learned about the student’s motivation to jump, Cook said, “There is some other stuff going on that I can’t get into. I’m working with the child’s parents and law enforcement to try to find out more of the backstory. … We’ll provide information as it comes available, provide what I can and what’s pertinent.”
Although the sheriff’s office continues to investigate the incident, there’s no indication a crime was committed, Jones said.
