12-Year-Old Boy Dies While Hiking

A 12-year-old Anaheim boy fell to his death Thursday while hiking with his sixth-grade class in the San Bernardino Mountains, officials said.

The boy, who was not identified, slipped while crossing a creek near Green Valley Lake. The current swept him away, and he fell 300 feet down a rocky waterfall, said Doug Crawford, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Two camp counselors who tried to help him suffered minor injuries, Crawford said.

The sixth-grade classes from Woodsboro School in Anaheim and Placentia’s Wagner School were on an annual weeklong trip to the Arrowhead Ranch Outdoor Science School in nearby Running Springs, said Karen Bass, spokeswoman for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. The boy who died was a student at Woodsboro.

“We’ve sent buses up there to bring all the kids home tonight,” Bass said late Thursday. “Counselors went up in the buses in case the kids need to talk about what happened.”

Crawford said a group of 80 children and adults was hiking when the accident occurred. Snow covered the ground, and temperatures were in the low 30s at the spot where icy water gushed in torrents down a crevice studded with boulders.

Times wire services contributed to this report.