TUSCUMBIA, Ala. (WHNT) — In a message sent to parents on Wednesday, the Tuscumbia City Schools superintendent shared more details about an incident at Deshler High where a student was severely injured last week.
The Tuscumbia Police Department is investigating after August Borden, a student and football player at Deshler High School, was severely injured at school on Tuesday, Aug. 19. Borden’s mother and stepfather told News 19 that he was airlifted to Birmingham, and after two days in the hospital, he is back home and recovering.
On Wednesday, the parent of a student at Tuscumbia City Schools told News 19 that Superintendent Russ Tate had sent a message to parents within the school system.
In the message, Tate said that football players were walking from the weight room to the locker room, supervised by coaches, when it happened. He said employees at the scene immediately called 911 and implemented the Emergency Action Plan for Athletics.
He also said that while the school does utilize security cameras, “unfortunately, there are no cameras in this specific location as it is located over 100 yards from any entrance area to the school.”
You can read Tate’s full message sent to parents below:
Parents and Stakeholders,Tuscumbia City Schools understands that there have been many questions regarding the unfortunate incident that took place last Tuesday. While we are limited in what we can share at this point due to federal privacy laws and an ongoing investigation by theTuscumbia Police Department, I am aware of the widespread public attention and will share what I can.According to supervising coaches, all players were walking from the weight room to the locker room after working out on August 19. A coach was in the locker room to open the door and ensure supervision of the players when they walked in the locker room. All the other players and coaches were walking back with coaches intermingled with the players. When the incident happened, there were employees supervising the students.Employees at the scene immediately called 911 and implemented the Emergency Action Plan for Athletics. The first course of action was to ensure that the student was taken care of medically. The 911 Center advised the coaches to begin CPR. At no time was a pulse lost and the ambulance arrived approximately five minutes after the call came to them. After the student was stabilized, Tuscumbia City Schools began calling the parents of the student. Again, our first priority is to ensure the student’s immediate medical needs are attended to, even prior to calling a parent.While Tuscumbia City Schools does utilize security cameras, unfortunately, there are no cameras in this specific location as it is located over 100 yards from any entrance area to the school.After the incident occurred, we immediately began launching an investigation which included interviewing all known witnesses the following day. Due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, we are unable to discuss the results of our internal investigation, which has now been turned over to the Tuscumbia Police Department, who will continue conducting the investigation into this incident. We are cooperating with them in the investigation. We ask for the public’s patience as the authorities learn more about what happened last Tuesday, and we ask that the public refrain from personal attacks on students, faculty, or staff as everyone is focused on understanding what happened.This situation has been incredibly difficult on the entire TCS community-especially our students and our employees. We are providing counseling for any student or employee who may need the additional support.Our primary focus on the day of the incident was to ensure that a student at Deshler High School received proper medical care and allow the investigation to determine what happened. Once the investigation has been completed and we understand, we can begin the process to determine how to prevent or mitigate incidents like this in the future. We ask that you keep the injured student and his. family in your thoughts and prayers as he continues to recover, and that you also remember all of our students during thistime.If you are aware of any information that would assist in the investigation, please contact the Tuscumbia Police Department. All further comments regarding this investigation should be directed to the Tuscumbia Police Department.
Russ Tate, Superintendent of Tuscumbia City Schools
TPD said on its Facebook page Saturday night that it was investigating what had happened with Borden.
Tuscumbia Police Chief Tony Logan told News 19 on Monday that he and his team of investigators were in the process of interviewing students and adults who were there before the incident occurred.
Logan also said, once they are done with the investigation, there’s a chance that he may turn it over to the Colbert County Sheriff’s Office for an extra pair of eyes.
August’s family told News 19’s Whitney Leibold on Monday that they just want answers.
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