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Rocky View School Student Accidentally Strangled By Lanyard, Grade 3 Student Rushed To Hospital

Grade 3 Student Accidentally Strangled By Lanyard
Alamy

UPDATE: The Calgary Herald is reporting the province has banned all lanyards from Alberta schools, pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation into the near strangling of the Bearspaw School student.

CALGARY - A southern Alberta school has stopped the use of lanyards after an accident that sent a Grade 3 student to hospital with critical injuries.

Greg Bass, superintendent for Rocky View Schools, says the boy needed to be given CPR after being found with his lanyard caught on the door of a washroom cubicle at Bearspaw School, northwest of Calgary.

Bass described the incident as, "a very tragic accident,"

What exactly happened isn't known, but RCMP have ruled out foul play.

"We have never heard of anything like this happening before and I am sure every school board throughout the province, if they had any information ahead of time, this obviously would have been prevented,'' Cpl. Darrin Turnbull said Friday. "It's one of those things you can't foresee."

Bass said the accident happened Wednesday. Another student came across the unresponsive child in a bathroom during the lunch recess and ran back to class to tell a teacher. The teacher ran back to the washroom and then called 911.

CPR was given by a staff member who was certified as a first-aid instructor. The student was rushed to the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary and immediately placed in intensive care. His condition Friday was critical, but stable.

"Our entire organization is very shocked and almost in a state of disbelief,'' Bass said. "Obviously we would never want anything like this to occur in the first place, nor occur again so we are doing that analysis as we speak and we'll see what comes of that.''

Bass said lanyards - cords that hang around the neck and to which something is attached - are used in the Rocky View division on a school-by-school basis.

"Lanyards could be used for hallway passes ... for bathroom passes ... (or) for identification purposes,'' he said.

"Obviously their use is not for situations where students would be on playgrounds or activities in phys ed and those types of things.

With files from the Canadian Press

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