5 Children Injured at Dance
Five children leaving a school dance were taken to hospitals Friday after being trampled as hundreds of students jostled to leave the auditorium of a South Los Angeles middle school, authorities said.
None of the injuries were serious, said Jim Wells, a spokesman for the city Fire Department. About 15 other students were checked by paramedics and firefighters at Gompers Middle School in the 200 block of E. 112th Street, Wells said.
The incident happened shortly before 1 p.m. after a bell rang to signal the end of a noon school dance, said Sgt. Vance Sayre of the Los Angeles Unified School District police.
“The bell rang so the kids wanted to go back to school, and they rushed out of the same door,” Sayre said. “One boy fell, and several kids started falling behind him.”
The injuries consisted mostly of cuts and bruises and complaints about leg, ankle and head pain, Wells said.
Two boys and three girls, 12- and 13-year-olds, were taken to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood as precautionary measures, authorities said.
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