View Full Version : Girls trapped UNDER elevator at Classen SAS



jbrown84
11-15-2011, 11:01 PM
There's a MAJOR, major piece of the who-what-where-when-why missing from this story...


Three students in good condition after being injured in Classen School of Advanced Studies elevator
Published: November 15, 2011


Three students who became trapped Tuesday beneath a school elevator likely spared themselves further injury by remaining calm and working as a team, an ambulance service spokeswoman said.

A sixth-grade girl and two seventh-grade girls were taken to the hospital about noon Tuesday after they were trapped beneath the elevator at Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City.

The girls went to OU Medical Center in separate ambulances and were in good condition Tuesday afternoon, Emergency Medical Services Authority spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said.

What happened?

O'Leary said the girls were in the elevator shaft and saw the elevator car coming down.

They at first tried to stop the car, but when that failed they agreed they should lie on their stomachs, O'Leary said.

The elevator car stopped with 10 to 12 inches to spare, which trapped the girls but left them with no serious injuries, O' Leary said.

“The girls remained calm, but all three were shaken up,” O'Leary said.

The accident happened about 11:20 a.m. on the first floor of the building, school district spokeswoman Tierney Tinnin said. The girls were freed by noon with the help of the Oklahoma City Fire Department and an elevator company worker.

Tinnin said a school staff member heard the girls and alerted the principal.

Tinnin did not know if the students had been released from the hospital Tuesday evening. She said the school will investigate how the accident happened and talk to the girls after they return to school.

The elevator was last inspected in October and passed, Tinnin said. The elevator has been working, and there haven't been any major repairs recently, she said.

“We're going to look at it and figure out for this school and any other school that has an elevator what happened,” she said. “It could have been a tragedy.”

Deputy Fire Chief Marc Woodard said the girls were freed after the car in the cable-operated hydraulic elevator was raised by pressing an override switch. He said firefighters waited until the elevator company worker arrived from Midwest City “to make sure that was the right switch.”

Read more: http://newsok.com/three-students-in-good-condition-after-being-injured-in-classen-school-of-advanced-studies-elevator/article/3623472#ixzz2LxXCGUVo

bandnerd
11-16-2011, 05:06 AM
I felt the same way when I read this story, especially about the why and how. Why were they under there, and how in the world did they get there?

Redskin 70
11-16-2011, 06:16 AM
they pryed open the elevator door(yes you can do that) and then jumped into the elevator shaft.................and gasp of gasp's the door closed behind them. They were lucky but not terribly...............Now their parents know they are dumb butts

Achilleslastand
11-16-2011, 06:50 AM
Their stupidy will be rewarded with a lawsuit..............watch.

kevinpate
11-16-2011, 08:06 AM
Just goes to show that it's not always the guys who run into difficulty a minute or three after someone says "oh, go ahead, what could possibly go wrong?"

RadicalModerate
11-16-2011, 08:48 AM
If this is an example of the hijinx that can occur at a School of Advanced Studies, I'm wondering what it's like at a School of Regular Ol' Studies . . .

I predict, in addition to a lawsuit over the function of an elevator, there will be a claim for emotional distress when the young ladies are demoted to the Sweathog class.

jn1780
11-16-2011, 10:10 AM
If this is an example of the hijinx that can occur at a School of Advanced Studies, I'm wondering what it's like at a School of Regular Ol' Studies . . .

I predict, in addition to a lawsuit over the function of an elevator, there will be a claim for emotional distress when the young ladies are demoted to the Sweathog class.

Smart teenage girls are still teenage girls. lol

MDot
11-16-2011, 10:52 AM
This is so stupid it's sad. However, out of a dumb decision came the intellegiance and "bravery" to stay calm during all this and work together to prevent an even worse scenario. It's weird when you can call someone dumb and smart at the same time. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

RadicalModerate
11-16-2011, 11:00 AM
Sure glad that this event didn't involve escalators . . .
The outcome prob'ly wouldn'ta provided a second chance to show that the lesson was learnt.
Fer sher.

(Perhaps their senses were dulled by too much Justin Beiber? He could be a co-respondent in the inevitable lawsuit. Justin and anyone named Otis.)

jn1780
11-16-2011, 11:20 AM
Not defending the girls because lets face it their still dumb, but from the picture from the link it doesn't look like your typical elevator door. It looks like a normal steel door that locks electro magneticaly or something of that sort.

RadicalModerate
11-16-2011, 11:31 AM
You mean the door with the "Authorized Persons Only" sign on it?
The one that had to be "pried open" or possibly "lock picked"?

I'm thinkin' that the metal detector at The School of Advanced studies should have picked up the crowbar and that the teachers in question should have assigned less strenuous "How It Works" engineering field trips.

Double Edge
11-16-2011, 11:57 AM
Not defending the girls because lets face it their still dumb, but from the picture from the link it doesn't look like your typical elevator door. It looks like a normal steel door that locks electro magneticaly or something of that sort.

I know the elevator and it isn't your typical one. The elevator itself is about 3 feet wide, five feet deep and does not have automatic closing doors inside or out. The door is supposed to lock out when the elevator is not at that level and did the last time I used it which was not that long ago, so either it was broken or they found a way to pry it open as was stated. Under normal circumstances you can't move the car without the doors closed too.

Either way, no way did the girls enter by accident, even if the door was not working like normal.

jbrown84
11-16-2011, 12:04 PM
So how do they write this article and ignore the GIANT question of how on earth they ended up in an elevator shaft????

Achilleslastand
11-16-2011, 01:29 PM
Sure glad that this event didn't involve escalators . . .
The outcome prob'ly wouldn'ta provided a second chance to show that the lesson was learnt.
Fer sher.

(Perhaps their senses were dulled by too much Justin Beiber? He could be a co-respondent in the inevitable lawsuit. Justin and anyone named Otis.)


Nice nod to Otis elevator company............

Snowman
11-16-2011, 08:19 PM
So how do they write this article and ignore the GIANT question of how on earth they ended up in an elevator shaft????

It is harder to write about something they probably would not admit, if they were going to tell the truth that usually comes out fast, if they want a plausible excuse that can take time. Plus it is less likely to get the paper sued than if implied it was someone's infallible daughter did that put themselves in danger.

bandnerd
11-17-2011, 05:53 AM
A teacher with whom I work attended Classen SAS, and when she explained the elevator to me, it made a whole lot more sense, and she was surprised it didn't happen sooner. However, maybe now the school officials will re-think how this elevator operates and who has access.

It most certainly is not a "typical" elevator.

As for the girls...well, teenagers can do stupid stuff. Maybe some posters here and on the newsok site are so far removed from their teenage years that they don't remember making really stupid decisions. However, the way the brain develops basically allows teenagers to take risks without understanding the consequences, even if they are posted in plain site or seem obvious to adults. That "It will never happen to me" mentality isn't a generational thing...it's a teenager thing, and every teenager out there has thought that at some point or another. Give the kids a break. They'll likely never do anything like that again.

Just the facts
11-19-2011, 04:52 PM
This is so stupid it's sad. However, out of a dumb decision came the intellegiance and "bravery" to stay calm during all this and work together to prevent an even worse scenario. It's weird when you can call someone dumb and smart at the same time. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Did you hear the 911 call - brave and calm is not how I would describe them.

Achilleslastand
11-19-2011, 04:56 PM
Im shocked they havnt been labeled as heroes so far.

MDot
11-19-2011, 05:19 PM
Did you hear the 911 call - brave and calm is not how I would describe them.

I posted that before they released any audio tapes. Thanks for letting me know though.

Bunty
11-19-2011, 05:47 PM
they pryed open the elevator door(yes you can do that) and then jumped into the elevator shaft.................and gasp of gasp's the door closed behind them. They were lucky but not terribly...............Now their parents know they are dumb butts

I can't imagine why anyone wants to be at the bottom of an elevator shaft unless they heard there was dropped money or jewelry down there. If the bottom of the elevator shaft was filthy looking, I can't imagine jumping down there, unless I saw an object that looked mighty tempting.

Double Edge
11-19-2011, 06:34 PM
The girls were on local news the other night. There were allegedly four. The elevator was on the upper floor. The door was claimed to be open or able to be opened. Three girls went in, the fourth stayed out and shut the door. When the door was shut, the car automatically came to the first floor. There was also some info about a possible open maintenance work order out on the elevator but they gave no specifics if it was related to the door or not.

But as you say, no person would go through a door and into an elevator pit under normal circumstances.

Double Edge
11-19-2011, 07:09 PM
Interview video here: http://newsok.com/article/3624213

Why didn't they ask the obvious question why the girls went in a door to an elevator when the elevator wasn't there and there was a pit?

kevinpate
11-19-2011, 07:12 PM
...

Why didn't they ask the obvious question why the girls went in a door to an elevator when the elevator wasn't there and there was a pit?


Long time since my teen years, but I get why they might have done it.

It Was There!

That's plenty enough reason to get a teen in all sorts of mischief, pain, etc.

Double Edge
11-19-2011, 07:15 PM
Long time since my teen years, but I get why they might have done it.

It Was There!

That's plenty enough reason to get a teen in all sorts of mischief, pain, etc.

Of course. That's the elephant in the room. They should have put them on the spot anyway.

kevinpate
11-19-2011, 07:18 PM
Thought on it a bit more. It's possible that was asked, and answered, but it hit the editing floor to make story fit allotted space.

Double Edge
11-19-2011, 07:20 PM
When I was their age I pretty much knew all the underground flood water tunnels of Albuquerque. Never got trapped though.

Double Edge
11-19-2011, 07:20 PM
Thought on it a bit more. It's possible that was asked, and answered, but it hit the editing floor to make story fit allotted space.

on the advice or their attorney. (The girls')

bandnerd
11-20-2011, 06:35 AM
The girls were on local news the other night. There were allegedly four. The elevator was on the upper floor. The door was claimed to be open or able to be opened. Three girls went in, the fourth stayed out and shut the door. When the door was shut, the car automatically came to the first floor. There was also some info about a possible open maintenance work order out on the elevator but they gave no specifics if it was related to the door or not.

But as you say, no person would go through a door and into an elevator pit under normal circumstances.

I have students who have friends that go to Classen SAS. They told me what they had heard, and it wasn't anything like what the news reported.

Ever heard of the game chicken? Yup.

Just the facts
11-20-2011, 08:03 AM
I posted that before they released any audio tapes. Thanks for letting me know though.

No worries - I heard the exact same adjectives used to describe them by members of the national media - who also had not heard the tape yet.

Architect2010
11-20-2011, 11:21 AM
I'm just glad nothing worse happened! That must have been the most terrifying thing to happen to those girls.

Double Edge
11-20-2011, 12:49 PM
Yes. Thank dog some teens have 9 lives.

JayhawkTransplant
11-20-2011, 09:28 PM
I did some STUPID stuff when I was a kid. Right off the top of my head, I can remember ice skating on my pond when it was 60 degrees outside (after weeks of temps in the teens), holding a seance on the roof of my friend's house, driving the wrong way in a roundabout, and playing this stupid game where we had to walk home from school in a perfectly straight line, even if it meant having to climb a fence or crawl over a car.

Why? Because it was some stupid idea my friends and I came up with.

Thank goodness these girls made it out okay!! That was some quick thinking. I'm less appalled by their stupid mistake and more impressed with their problem-solving.

MuseMOKC
11-21-2011, 12:13 PM
The girls make the rest of the students look bad. My son is in the 6th grade at Classen, and is in classes with the 6th grader involved. According to him, she gets in trouble all the time. The other students are sick of the media coverage and actually annoyed with all the attention these girls are receiving. They are not being punished, despite the fact that only authorized students were allowed use of elevator (and had keys issued to them). It is ridiculous.
What sickens me most is that there is another 6th grader who attends the school who MUST use the elevator due to her medical condition. In order to attend last week when the elevator was shut down for the investigation, she had to be carried up and down the THREE story building by her parents. How humiliating for her. I'm sure the girls never had to apologize to her either.
I find it sad when my own sixth grader has the common sense not to go into a clearly marked areas under construction per MAPS renovations as well as the elevator (as noted in their orientation materials), but these girls are not? They KNEW what they were doing alright. They facebooked about it.

RadicalModerate
11-21-2011, 01:30 PM
I'm just glad nothing worse happened! That must have been the most terrifying thing to happen to those girls.

It's hard to imagine anything much more terrifying than being smashed by an elevator.
I hope they don't go looking for an experience to outdo that one . . .

Maybe they should be forced to read MuseMOKC's post . . .
Encountering nearly pure truth is sometimes fairly frightening . . .
(In case you didn't get it that was a big thumbs up for MMOKC's words)

On the other hand, they could take a cruise on a boat with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken . . .

Double Edge
11-21-2011, 01:50 PM
Or Occupy something besides an elevator shaft.

RadicalModerate
11-21-2011, 01:52 PM
A big thumbs up on that one, too . . . =)

Humor Transcends Politics . . .
(Even so-called "black" humor) . . .

I wonder if that innocuous comment will push somebody's buttons . . .

Just the facts
11-21-2011, 03:20 PM
On the other hand, they could take a cruise on a boat with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken . . .

Now that was funny.

Architect2010
11-21-2011, 04:54 PM
It's hard to imagine anything much more terrifying than being smashed by an elevator.
I hope they don't go looking for an experience to outdo that one . . .

Maybe they should be forced to read MuseMOKC's post . . .
Encountering nearly pure truth is sometimes fairly frightening . . .
(In case you didn't get it that was a big thumbs up for MMOKC's words)

On the other hand, they could take a cruise on a boat with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken . . .

Stop being strange.

RadicalModerate
11-23-2011, 11:16 PM
Dang:
I musta' accidentally hit the Down Button.

(Them there "architect/minimalist signage dudes" outta make this sorta stuff more clear . . .
You know . . . Like to avoid elevator misuse and potential commercials for how a pair of Red Wing Work/Combat Boots saved three children at the bottom of an elevator shaft.)