Urgent Edinburgh school checks after schoolgirl wall death
Surveyors are inspecting walls in school buildings across Edinburgh after a 12-year-old pupil died when a wall in a changing room collapsed on top of her.
The girl has been named as Keane Wallis-Bennett – she was pronounced dead at Edinburgh’s Liberton High School shortly before 10am yesterday.
In a statement her family said the 12-year-old “was our princess who dreamed of being prime minister”, and “will be sadly missed.”
Pupils at the school were sent home early as police and health and safety officials began their inquiry.
Edinburgh City Council said the wall was a “free-standing modesty wall”, and similar walls at other schools will now be checked by building surveyors.
The school is not expected to reopen this week. A full council survey of the premises will be completed before pupils return from their Easter holidays in three weeks.
There was storm damage a few years back that caused considerable difficulties. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill
A senior member of the Scottish Government said the school has faced “challenges”.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the school had “difficulties with fragmenting and fraying to the fabric” of the building. However, he added that he did not believe there were problems with health and safety at the school.
Mr MacAskill told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme of his “shock and disbelief” after the tragic incident.
“It’s hard to imagine the situation of a child going off to school on a spring day never to return, and our hearts and thoughts go out to the family and the wider community and pupils,” he said.
Lift shaft fall
The local council was previously fined £8,000 when a girl at the school was seriously injured after falling 16ft down a broken lift shaft. The 15-year-old suffered three fractured vertebrae and a sprained wrist in the December 2011 fall.
Asked if there were concerns about health and safety at Liberton High, Mr MacAskill said: “I don’t believe so. The school, as with many schools of that era, the late 50s early 60s, has its challenges. There was storm damage a few years back that caused considerable difficulties and the incident for which the council was fined.”