PROSPECT, Maine — A 7-year-old boy from Bucksport was taken by LifeFlight to Eastern Maine Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon after he fell approximately 15 feet at Fort Knox while on a school field trip, police said.
While the first-grader was conscious after the fall, he suffered fractures in both arms and a laceration to his head, said Lt. Jason Trundy of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department. The lieutenant also said the child lost some teeth.
“He was talking,” Bucksport School Department Superintendent James Boothby said. “He actually walked back to his teacher after he fell.”
The boy was on a field trip to Fort Knox with his first-grade class and two other classes from G.H. Jewett School, the superintendent said.
Deputy Darrin Moody of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department went to Fort Knox just before 3 p.m., Trundy said. According to Moody’s report, the child was rolling down an unspecified hill and went over an embankment, where he then fell approximately 15 feet.
“Exactly where the chaperones were when the child rolled down the hill, I don’t know,” Trundy said.
Superintendent Boothby said “three teachers, a number of ed techs and some chaperones” attended the field trip and he had no indication of where they were when the child rolled down the hill.
Ouch! Heal quickly young fella.
Wishing this young man a SUPER speedy and complete recovery!!!!
aww poor guy. How scary!
an awful way to spend the summer vacation
I agree that it’s a crummy vacation, but it’s better than the alternative. Had he been more seriously injured and died, he wouldn’t ever have a summer vacation again.
When I was a kid I almost fell off that ledge, it needs to have a fence put in front of it.
Maybe it was a ghost that saved ya.
Who knows? I count my lucky stars. But for real, they should put a fence up. If its a tourist attraction, they need to keep the public safe. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that the family doesn’t try to sue the state for this incident.
Right, Ive been there and your right they do need to put some kind of barrier there.. I was thinking about when ghost hunters went there when I read your post…lol
I agree. That episode was nice to watch because we’re all familiar with the place. I dont think its haunted, but kinda awesome to see on TV :P
No I dont think so either but it kinda makes it more exciting to walk through now.
Soooo… everyone knew there was nothing there. I assume they didn’t find anything?
So what good is this show? They go to places with the knowledge there are no ghosts or question of ghosts. and prove there are no ghosts??? lol
There must be a network out there with 10 or 20 thousand viewers that would give me a show looking for Stan Lee in every single house in Green Bay. I know we won’t find him because he doesn’t live there but just watching me wander around sounds like such a hoot.( Was that folksy? I was going for folksy)
Somebody get me Snooky’s agent, QUICK
um…. What??
Also, maybe you should watch the show a couple times before you make assumptions.. You know what happens when you assume…
You can’t sue the state. The law prohibits it. But I hope the Friends and each board member has their premiums up to date.
Really? I honestly didn’t know that. But they should at least put some type of fence up just so that doesn’t happen again. I’m just glad this lil’ guy will recover and he didn’t land on his neck. I’m sure this situation will stir up the stew with the board members though.
And there it is…. LITIGATION
the kid fell, supervised by a parent. there is no room for litigation.
From a distance one can evaluate the safety. If the parent didn’t object it’s ON THE PARENT.
So naive. There is ALWAYS room for litigation, and insurance companies nearly always settle rather than risk a big loss after expensive litigation.
Unfortunately my comment was on how the world should work. Not how it does.,
Anyway, I’ve been to crabby lately.
Rock,paper, lizard, scissors Spock.?
read the article again…in no way does it mention he had a parent on the field trip with him. It mentions teachers, ed techs, and chaperones. Does not specify his parent was there.
My apologies, I should have said adult supervision. And…, throwing that into the mix makes litigation more probable, sigh….
I hope if there is it is against the school and chaperones not the Fort. We have gone there for 30 years with small children and kept them on this side of the chains as well as the banking. But one did trip on a root on a path in the picnic area, maybe I should have sued!
Parents must sign a release to allow their kids to attend a field trip in our district. Any field trip. I have actually considered not signing in the past – it is very detailed, basicallty releasing them from every possible thing that can happen to them under their watch.
His parents were NOT there!
thats what I said…I was correcting another person who posted who implied that they were.
which ledge are we talking about, cause I didnt see anywhere in the story that specified where in the park he was rolling.
No, it doesnt. That ledge has been there for a looooong time. I bet you someone has got hurt before. It hasnt seen a fence yet. Perhaps we shouldnt tamper with an important historical landmark and treat this incident as it is: a child having an unfortunate accident. News flash: They have them constantly. Just because it happened at the Fort and it made news (why is beyond me, I guess since the Salt crazy died down there hasnt been much to talk about) doesnt make it any different then any other similar injury.
My sons father and I just had an argument last weekend over our 8 yr old son at Fort Knox. Daddy was irresponsible and climbed over the chain rail and starts to follow is mini dadda. I said “NO” Dadda decided to call mommy “Overprotective” and laughed. This was my fear, little boys are clumsy, they do not have the self control that an adult would have. What a horrible accident. I hope he heals quickly and I understand that Fort Knox is a Historical sight but safety is not an alteration, it’s a necessity.
sorry but as you just said, even your sons father (adult) climbed over the chain rails. putting up more safety measures isn’t the answer. common sense for one (adults). and complete supervision is the other… with that said, wishing this little boy a quick and complete recovery. hopefully it’s just physcial injuries and he doesn’t suffer any mental issues from this incident. a 2 story fall would be quite traumatizing
Obviously I know it was idiotic, irresponsible and down right stupid. why do you think I spoke up? The point is, children fall all the time, out of their beds, out of the back yard tree. They are clumsy and far from sure footed as are many elderly who also visit the Fort. There are areas that could use a fence of some sort other than a chain.
can you tell me what “mini dadda” is?
I am assuming “mini dadda” would be her son… and you may already have figured that out, but thought I would pass that tid-bit along.
Just like his father, does everything his dadda does, walks the same, talks the same and copies his every move as most children do. Therefore dadda sholdn’t be so irresponsible.
My sons father and I just had an argument last weekend over our 8 yr old son at Fort Knox. Daddy was irresponsible and climbed over the chain rail and starts to follow is mini dadda. I said NO”
please tell me what a “mini dadda” is!!
A kid doing what daddy does….hence mini dadda!
I guess the last part of the sentence threw me off ‘starts to follow is mini dadda ‘ . Didn’t say who follows and says is instead of “his”?
Perhaps she just missed the word “who”. Who starts to follow is mini dadda…
Glad to hear the poor kid is ok, is it just me or does the news lately seem a little gravity heavy?
And by ‘ok’ I mean not dead, poor guy probably has a lot of pain ahead of him still :(
I was so scared when I saw the life flight over at the fort. Our son was on the field trip and must of been afraid as heck from the outcome. I hope the young man has a speedy recovery and gets well soon.
he gets throught this. he can tell about his trip in the big helicopter. he will become one ofLifeFlights success stories
I like that. Life Flight Success Story. Gotta remember those successes.
You can’t always blame the chaperones. Kids are fast creatures. And chaperones only have 2 eyes per head (if they come fully loaded). When a kid knows he’s not supposed to do something, all he has to do is wait for the chaperone to have both eyes somewhere else. Then it’s time to pounce. I hope this boy is left with nothing more than a good story to tell and no scars to prove it ever happened.
My mother had 4 eyes, two in front and two in the back of her head, she told me so. And I got caught enough times I think I still believe her. :-)
Prayers for your healing.
Whenever I was a chaperone on I was designated certain for whom I was responsible. I always made sure those little ones were in my site. For this child to walk back to the teacher seems to tell us someone wasn’t watching. These are just first graders…babies!
Stuff happens. Lucky this young man wasn’t hurt more seriously. I don’t like that that article twice states that information about where the chaperones were wasn’t available as if that was the most important piece. I’m sure they weren’t all out back having a smoke while the kids ran amok. I’ve chaperoned that age group before, and was put on a group of only 3 kids, who were monitored so closely because they were out of control, and that was challenging. So unless you have one-on-one chaperones and have the kids tied to you, stuff like this can happen. I hope he recovers quickly. Not a nice way to start his summer.
Accidents to happen. Very quickly in fact. I can tell you that I have been there and the chaperones I saw were not watching the kids they were in charge of. The children were rolling down this same hill near the picnic area. Two parents were standing between the kids rolling down this hill and the ledge. Just 2! Sure there were many watching but I was surprised there weren’t more guarding the edge. I watched this happen right before my eyes. My point being that not every parent keeps their eyes on the children they are in charge of every moment on a field trip!!
Yikes! It sounds like a recurring thing to do there, so maybe they indeed should be putting up fences or doing something to curtail that activity!
Evidently rolling down the hill there is the “thing” to do. If I had children I wouldn’t have allowed it. It’s obvious by looking it over and doing the math kids shouldn’t be rolling down that hill.
Or perhaps they should leave a very old historic fort the way it is and either A. watch after the kids better or B. Understand accidents happen anywhere. Shouldnt instantly rally to change something just become one person gets hurt.
While you may be right more fencing could be needed, but it remains, the adults SHOULD not have been letting these kids roll down the hill were there was potential danger. Two parents can tell all the children to stop this activity and find something else to do.
Hmmm, the State owns the property. I would wonder about the schools premiums though.
Maybe it really IS time to let a private group run the Fort…they can get the lawsuits!
Would I be guilty of minimizing a potential tragedy if I were to point out, to those calling for tampering with a historic landmark in the name of safety, that 7-year-olds fall off of things and break their arms all the time, and most of them do not require a trip to Fort Knox to accomplish this time-honored childhood feat?
Nor to they get in the paper for it… why does the greater Bangor area need to know about this?
Even with so many eyes it’s impossible to see every child every minute. This is why a lot of schools are doing away with field trips. It’s unfortunate that the young man got hurt and I wish him a quick recovery. But I hope this will not stop all the field trips in the future, that would be even sadder. Children look forward to these trips and will even earn them when necessary because of the budget. And they learn a lot from them. Again Hope you heal up quick, gonna be one heck of a story to tell your own children one day.
So naive. There is ALWAYS room for litigation, and insurance companies nearly always settle rather than risk a big loss after expensive litigation.
THATS WHY HE NEEDED AN ADULT CHAPERONE SUPERVISING….because he is not old enough to have enough common sense to avoid hurting himself by accident. If I was his Mom, I would be VERY upset with the negligence of the school staff. Thats what it was plain and simple. If he had time to roll down a hill, fall off a ledge 15 feet down, and then have time to walk back to the teachers to report he had injured himself, then he was NOT being properly supervised.
Let me summarize for you. “OK kids, in order to go on this field trip, everyone must bring one guardian with them to school, or you won’t be allowed to go.”
NO….THATS NOT WHAT I SAID. If the adults with these kids had been doing their jobs and SUPERVISING the students, then perhaps this child would not have had time to roll down a hill, fall 15 feet off the ledge, and then have enough time to walk back to the teachers all the while suffering fromTWO broken arms, and a head laceration. That seems like a LOT of minutes that he was NOT supervised, and that the adults were unaware of his predicament.
I wish the boy a speedy recovery…..what a terrible summer vacation for him. His Parent (s) must be traumatized as well hearing that their child was life flighted from a field trip.
it seems rather ridiculous to have transferred the kid via lifeflight. It was a broken arm and some lost teeth. It seems like they’re a little quick on the trigger with that thing and I’m not saying that just because I live in the flight path.
And a potential head injury that needed immediate examination.
Nice place but its not kid friendly. people need to supervise children there. sadly I see many people let their kids run free. this could have been a lot worse. there are other places there that kids can fall and get seriously hurt.
Just a kid playing where he probably shouldn’t have been.. and an unfortunate accident. Happens all the time. Just because it happened to be at Fort Knox doesn’t warrant a newspaper article…
Fortunately, it sounds like he’ll be fine… though I’m not sure he’ll be going anywhere near that ledge anytime soon
I went to Fort Knox a few years ago with my child as a chaperone for the same school. I was given 2 students to keep safe, as was all the other chaperones. I took this responsibility very seriously. I never took my eyes off them. When one of them had to go to the bathroom, I walked her to the bathroom and the other came with us and we waited outside.
I have been an EMT for 20 years. We have two children of our own. This year I offered to chaperone a school field trip and was told because I did not go to the “field trip chaperone training course” I was not allowed to be a chaperone. Now I am not sure what this “training” involves, but I guess they left out the section WATCH THE KIDS.
Our children are still in the same school system and this makes me wonder, who, that is more qualified than my wife and I because of the school training, is looking after our kids on field trips? Don’t get me wrong. We love the Bucksport School System. I think the teachers have done great things for both our kids. This, however, worries us. If this poor child was one of ours, we would be DEMANDING answers.
As a child growing up in Bucksport school systems and having all of my family members go through that school system , I can tell you that in the past 30 years they have been taking kids to Fort Knox for an end of the year field trip. Not once has a kid hurt themselves to the extent they were sent to the hospital. The probability of that happening again is low as a person that has a minor in mathematics. Children run, get distracted and have accidents — that could have just as easily happen on a playground equipment. Chaperones are often are over burdened with high energy kids outside fo a controlled environment , I am sure the chaperone in charge felt incredibly horrible about what happened. I have thought some things were more urgent than others while taking care of kids in the past to discover the one I thought was doing “the best” or least likely to “make trouble” was the one that got into the most. Have a little compassion.
Thinks with all the falls at Acadia they need to fence off most of the park!
I noticed someone said to sue. That is the battle cry for everything. First, kids have accidents. Second, many kids after being told many times to STOP something won’t. None of us was there and we don’t know whether or not the kids rolling down a hillside were reprimanded or told to stop. This boy is lucky that the outcome was not even more tragic.
First, let me say that this is an unfortunate accident…an ACCIDENT. Accidents happen to even the most careful of parents, chaperones, Ed Techs and teachers. We, as a society, want perfection from people. Especially teachers. Teachers do the best that they can in every situation, and most always go above and beyond to ensure that YOUR CHILD is safe, educated and respected as a human being. Many of these teachers are not blessed with Ed-Techs that can help with children that are challenged, unruly or have special needs. But…when an accident happens, it is these people that are the first to be blamed. For every parent out there, you know how easy it is to have something happen quickly. There are a lot of factors that attributed to this accident at Fort Knox. Please don’t attack the ones that encourage, teach and mold your children into the adults they will be one day. Teaching is a very difficult job in today’s society. Only those that truly have it in their heart to teach will survive. We are all too quick to judge. Nobody wins when people attack others.