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A game of tug-of-war resulted in the loss of multiple fingers for two students at a Los Angeles County high school on Monday, officials said.
Students at South El Monte High School were competing against each other in a lunchtime game when the rope snapped, amputating four fingers from a male student's right hand and four fingers from a female student's right hand, plus the thumb on her left hand, Los Angeles County supervising fire dispatcher Eddie Pickett told NBC News.
The students, both 18 years old, were transported to a trauma center, he said. Another 17-year-old female student was taken to a trauma center for anxiety, he said.
"They are both stable and the parents were by their bedside," Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman Rosa Sacca told The San Gabriel Valley Tribune on Monday. "They were getting ready to be taken to the operating room to try to re-attach the fingers."
No update on the students' surgery was provided, and a call from NBC News to the medical center was not returned Tuesday morning.
Pickett said he believed the amputations occurred because the rope was actually wrapped around the students' hands, instead of just being grasped in their hands. He told NBC News that the extra force caused the rope to snap, which then resulted in the injuries.
The game was part of a Spirit Week at South El Monte High School, according to The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. The girl who lost her fingers is varsity soccer player, and the boy is a football player, reported the paper.
The school hasn't said if it will cancel future tug-of-war games.
"We'll review the activity with district administration," El Monte Union High School District Assistant Superintendent Edward Zuniga told The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "We're in the early stages. We just want to make sure we have all the facts straight before we talk about changing activities."
NBC's Liza Torres contributed to this report from Burbank, Calif.
Leave a Comment:
Ropes are simply too dangerous. It's the ropes fault this happened, not the stupid people using it. BAN ALL ROPES!!
So one man used a ROPE to strangle his ex-wife's kids, and now two high school CHILDREN have been mutilated by a ROPE!
It's time to BAN ROPE for the safety of our CHILDREN!
C'Mon libs get on the band-wagon, unless you are hypocrites about child safety!
License and register ropes. Ban all tug of war ropes capable of more than ten players. If it saves the fingers of only one child it is worth it!
Okay, so how safe are schools these days? I thought Teachers and Administrators were smart enough to protect our children but apparently schools are the NEW battlegrounds for severe and fatal injuries.
Kids get injured because they do stupid things. They are not 100% safe at home either. Why does everybody think that every time a kid gets hurt, they should sue the school for millions. Aside from this case, if you kid gets looked at wrong, the parents think it's okay to sue, and the education for every child is suffering. A lot of people who don't have children are getting sick of having all of these school bonds put before them and seeing so much money wasted on litigation insurance, sky high premiums for vandalism, etc. and the parents think this is just a fact of life, and nobody wants to change things. Seniors are losing their homes because property taxes are so high. What's to make anybody want to vote for more money for schools with you people blaming every problem your kids experience on the school and expecting the schools to feed, clothe, educate, and even teach values to your children. The school is for educating your children. You should be doing the rest. Instead you don't bother to pack them a lunch and you want them to come home with food for the family to eat over the weekend. Yea, litigate, and see where the next bond issue goes. Maybe we should require families with school-age children to get their own insurance and leave the schools out of it if the world is so dangerous.
Sandy,
Kids go to school to be taught not to be stupid, not how to do stupid things like wrap rope around your hands that can break bones and severe fingers. Sorry, but someone at the school needs to be fired for acting stupid. Hopefully the Union won't get in the way of the firing(s).
Spo de o de - Fire someone because the kids were playing tug-o-war. BRILLIANT!!!!
I hope they aren't musicians.
Can you spell L - I - T - I - G - A - T - E ? Hope the kids will have full use of their hands later on.
That's it, no more senseless tug o' war injuries! Ban all ropes immediately! Especially high capacity ropes, you know, the ones used in climbing and lassoing. We can't allow law abiding tug o' warriors to keep being maimed by this evil object of death! I mean, what else is a rope good for except death?
Doesn't this article say this occurred at lunch? If so, then I don't think the school should be sued. No matter how bad you feel for the students and their families, unsupervised play does not constitute negligence on the part of the school. If a students picks up a football during lunch and hits another student with it, it's not the school's fault either.
Time to ban long ropes. Limit them to only three or four feet so only two people at a time can have a tug-o-war.
And of course before one can play with or use a rope in any manner they should have to go through a rope safety course, and have their rope registered, and then go through a waiting period, and have a permit for their rope...for safety of the children of course!
And let us not forget a psych evaluation as part of the licensing process!
Oh, wait, we could just make the legal age for touching a rope be 21. Problem solved.
Now, laws for making parents responsible for properly securig their ropes. First, rope trigger locks . . .
If banning tug-of-war will save just one digit it should be banned at all schools in the country. It is fortunate that some of these kids did not wrap the rope around their necks. The field would have looked like a Saudi soccer field on a Saturday morning when the adulterers and other sundry criminals get their just reward.
The NRA (National Rope Association) may try and use it's powerful lobby to stop us, but it's time we, as americans, stood together and shouted, "enough is enough!!".. Congress needs to get off their behinds and enact a national ban on all Rope!!!
What Brains!!!
OMG...O M G....When will Congress step in and save us from ourselves!!!
LEO-995281...that was too much!!! I almost died laughing!
THAT is horrible! Hopefully they can re-attach the fingers, and the kids can stay positive. What a horrible mishap! Could have happened to anyone! Damn.
Now that is a show of true spirit fingers!
You can only use a rope that you can wrap around "7" digits - they were using a 9 digit illegal "clip" rope - so im sure Senator Frankenstein is in a huge uproar - I can see her parading the children around with a rope in her hand.
OMG..now we have to ban ropes, along with baseball bats, kitchen knives and lead pipes along with assault weapons. Actually they are really called "Defense weapons" With that line of thinking, we used to have a "Secretary of War", but the whiney liberals changed it to "Secretary of Defense" With that in mind and AR15 with a 30 round magazine is a Defense weapon, not an Assault weapon.
guess they wont be playing pull my finger anytime soon....
fart
Some school system eh...people in high school still haven't learned how to play tug-of-war...damn what a country...
Ropes are hurting people and the government should put a ban on rope before someone gets killed.
Why would they wrap the rope around their hands? How stupid were they?
So now the school district will pay for their stupidity. Typical Americana....
You win some & you lose some fingers.
heard about this happening before more than once.
I agree with the very first post, which is not to say a word and get all the facts, interview all people needed, make an honest jugement on facts, there are such things as accidents that truly no one ment to do any harm, yes these are tragic events, but learn from them and move on. I'm sure this will go in the wrong direction once blood thirsty lawyers can get their hands on it, but untill then makes me proud to be an amecican
Who would wrap the rope around their hands in the first place?
And who won the match?
The lost four finger side won...the losers lost 4 fingers and a thumb...
Cold, Dee Ten. But funny. Keeping score on their fingers, eh?