Gabriel Corbett, Michigan High School Student, Dies In Wall Collapse Doing Pull-Ups

WILLIAMSTON, Mich. — An 8-foot wall collapsed in a Michigan high school locker room, killing a 14-year-old student who had jumped and grabbed for the top to do a pull-up, police said Thursday.

Williamston High School freshman Gabriel Corbett was buried under cement blocks Wednesday and later pronounced dead at a hospital, Police Chief Bob Young said. It was not known why the interior wall came down.

"That's the million-dollar question we're trying to get to right now," said Young, who added there was "absolutely no" horseplay by the victim or another student who was in the locker room.

"The young man was trying to do pull-ups on the wall. He grabbed the top of the wall and that's when it came down," the police chief said.

District finance chief Steve Cook said there had been no reports of structural problems in the locker room, which was built in 1990.

"We're doing an investigation. ... Obviously the wall did come down. We're treating it as a freak accident," Cook said.

On its website, Williamston Community Schools, 20 miles east of Lansing, called it a "tragic accident." The high school was open Thursday with counselors available to talk to students.

A student, Leo Deason, 17, told the Lansing State Journal that he heard a noise in the locker room and rushed in. He said he and others removed cement blocks that had fallen on Corbett.

"He was in full cardiac arrest" before being rushed to the hospital, Young said.

Comments

[liwong38]

07:25 PM on 10/28/2011

schools have been came unsafe places for students now. Parents believed once believed that after their kids got in to the school doors, they would be safe.

[Halsey]

05:02 PM on 10/28/2011

Life is fragile and fate can be cruel. Who leaves their home in the morning with no thought that they won't be going home. Faulty construction and bad timing. I will mourn this young man's death and think of his family and friends.

You turn right and make it home; turn left and a drunk driver kills you. Just HUG everyone you love and let them know you love them every morning and every evening. This is very sad.

[vobox3343]

04:22 PM on 10/28/2011

Why are they acting like they don't know that funding from schools have been cut to the point of not properly maintaining our schools?

[gov111w]

01:00 PM on 10/28/2011

I'm sure that they will find that the wall was defected, so many companies are hiring illegal labor in labor intensive jobs, the result is often shoddy work due to the lack of experience and skill of the workers and the greed on the employers. Illegal workers will never report defected materals as well.

[Halsey]

04:59 PM on 10/28/2011

my gawd. IF you got struck by lightening, I am certain you would blame it on undocumented workers somehow.
This is a tragedy. You are a blight.

[whiterabbit19762]

11:53 PM on 10/27/2011

I don't care if horseplay was involved. THese are the walls that are supposed to stand up to pep rallies, dodgeballs, volleyballs, etc. No one should ever have to be careful of fragile walls in a high school, slipping on a wet floor maybe, but not the walls.

[profhdjr]

11:01 PM on 10/27/2011

How unfortunate when such an accident occurs to a kid who seemingly was just exercising. Knowing that this building was constructed in 1990 it is odd that this structural problem is just revealed. The building should be temporarily closed and checked for other structural defects. My condolences to the family and friends of this child.

[Jordan Austin]

07:54 PM on 10/27/2011

Cheap wall

[Stavo]

07:03 PM on 10/27/2011

Probably had illegal migrants doing the work.....while the contractors were charging a union scale to the school.

[Jordan Austin]

07:55 PM on 10/27/2011

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU CONSERVFAGS?

[HawaiiSteve]

10:26 PM on 10/27/2011

What a sad little being you are.

[Hlynn]

03:50 PM on 10/27/2011

How awful! This student was probably feeling great, with lots of energy and did an impulsive thing, as young people often do, but the consequences were tragic. Terrible for him, his family and friends, and the ones who tried to rescue him. He may have even done it before or seen others do it and nothing bad happened, but this time was different. So very sad.

[Tim Springer]

03:50 PM on 10/27/2011

Pish-Posh! He was too goofing around or horseplaying, while attempting to do pull-ups on that 19-ft. locker-room wall of his enrolled high school.

[bluesteel92]

06:39 PM on 10/27/2011

The article says "8-foot wall".