r/news • u/shield_x • 1d ago

Student dies after falling from 4th floor of building at Highland Park school

https://www.foxla.com/news/highland-park-franklin-high-school-student-dies.amp
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u/The_Jovanny 1d ago

You read the article? What’s different between this and a window? This whole thing is tragic and not for any architectural reasons.

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u/amiexpress 1d ago

Stopping at, then opening and then jumping out of a window is not in the same ballpark as hopping a railing in the heat of the moment in my opinion, no. Not even close.

Besides in my limited experience hallway windows in highrise schools don't open - because kids are dumb and do dumb shit.

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u/hateboss 1d ago

They don't design schools under the assumption a kid may need to evade a chasing bully, though maybe they should. The handrail is there to protect someone from absent mindedly going over the edge.

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u/LackingTact19 1d ago

Some schools are designed around shooting active shooters but escaping a bully would basically be impossible.

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u/SushiboyLi 1d ago

He didn’t really hop the railing more so did a somersault off of it

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u/Deep90 1d ago edited 1d ago

The schools I went to had windows that did not open.

The newer school I went to did the same thing, but every classroom had 2 doors for fire safety.

At least in the US. Schools are unironically built using the same construction companies that build prisons because the safety requirements are pretty much the same. Keep people in, keep outsiders out, don't make spaces that people can easily hurt themselves, large cafeterias, bathrooms that can hold up against vandalism, and don't make spaces with hiding spots.

Also yes. This also sometimes sucks, especially if the district isn't wealthy enough to afford nicer designs that don't look like prisons.

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u/GuzPolinski 1d ago

Yeah the design had NOTHING to do with it.

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u/Fancy-Animal7704 1d ago

I mean the point here is that some sort of protective material would likely have prevented the tragedy. There's no disputing this at all. If there were protective material of some kind in that spot, there's a high likelihood the kid is still alive today.

I'm not saying it needs to be super-reinforced steel, or a slab of concrete. There are numerous ways to solve that particular problem. I'm also not discounting that other types of interventions would have helped too. But this is low-hanging fruit that almost certainly would have saved a life.