A young boy was left with a concussion and some bruising when part of his elementary school’s ceiling collapsed on top of him.
James Harrah, eight, had been waiting to be picked up at George Washington Elementary School in Hanford, California on Monday when a portion of the ceiling stucco from the school’s outdoor amphitheater suddenly collapsed, ABC 7 reports.
‘All I remember is when I was going out from school, the roof fell on me,’ he recounted to the news station, with his arm still in a sling due to the injuries he sustained.
But his mother, Diana Harrah, explained that the roof collapsed while her son was just walking past the amphitheater.
‘It sounded like the one piece landed on top of his head and that knocked him over, and then another piece landed on top of him after he fell,’ she said.
A second child was also injured in the sudden roof collapse, the Hanford Elementary School District announced.
Both were rushed to a local hospital, and fortunately were released the same day.
Still, the Harrah family said they were left terrified by the incident.
James Harrah, eight, was left with a concussion and bruising when part of his elementary school’s ceiling fell on top of him Monday. He is pictured with his mother, Diana
The young boy and another student had to be rushed to a local hospital in the aftermath, but were fortunately released the same day
The incident occurred while James was waiting to be picked up from George Washington Elementary School in Hanford, California
James’s father, Shawn, told how he was already on his way to the school to pick him up when the ceiling collapsed.
‘I was able to get there, check on him, talk to him and let him know I was there,’ he recounted, noting that he called his wife ‘as quickly as I could.’
When she then learned what had happened, Diana said, ‘my heart just dropped, and I was so scared.
‘I raced quite a bit, quite fast to get here,’ she remembered.
The worried mother said she is now just grateful for the school employees’ quick response and the first responders who rushed to the scene.
‘We are incredibly thankful that certain things happened,’ Diana said, explaining that her son’s backpack helped keep much of the weight off of him.
‘His books were bent in half and they were pretty thick,’ she said. ‘So I feel he had an armor on him with his backpack.’
But the children who witnessed the terrifying scene were also left traumatized.
James’s mother explained that one piece of the amphitheater’s roof landed on top of her son’s head and knocked him over before another piece fell on top of him
Eugene Reyes, a parent whose child was there at the time of the incident, told Fox 26 his son saw the roof ‘fall on the poor kid’ and heard a ‘big boom.’
‘The kid wasn’t moving and you know, they had to remove all the stuff,’ Reyes said.
‘He’s a little shook up still by it,’ the worried father continued. ‘I asked him if he wanted to come and talk about it, but he’s still shaken up about it.’
As the children now recover, Hanford Elementary School District officials announced that in-person classes will be suspended through at least December 1, and children will be engaged in remote learning until then.
‘We’ve opted to temporarily close the campus and implement our emergency learning plan,’ district officials told Fox 26, noting that engineers and architects inspected the facility on Tuesday.
‘We are grateful to the quick actions of Washington staff and local emergency services,’ they continued, noting that police and firefighters, as well as an ambulance ‘were on the scene within minutes of the collapse, providing emergency services.’
The district officials added that they ‘look forward to welcoming our students back on campus at the start of December.’
James also said he is looking forward to being able to see his friends in person again.
‘I think they might be impressed because a roof fell on me,’ he said.
