Pupil Fatally Injured In Incident

A full structural examination of schools across Edinburgh is underway after a 12-year-old pupil was killed when a wall at Liberton High School collapsed on Tuesday morning (April 1st).

Keane Wallis-Bennett suffered fatal injuries in the incident involving a free standing wall which acted as a partition when pupils were showering in the changing rooms at the site.

Following the tragedy, Edinburgh City Council confirmed it was surveying similar walls in use across schools across the city as a precautionary measure.

In a statement, the council added that a full survey of schools including Liberton High School was carried out in 2012/13 and no concerns regarding the wall in question were identified.

The local authority added: “As a further precaution, a full survey will be carried out on Liberton High School in the coming days before the main school building re-opens to pupils.

“Support for all pupils, plus tutorial support for S4 to S6 pupils, will be available in the school's new games hall for the rest of this week.”

Expert Opinion

This terrible tragedy has raised serious concerns regarding safety in schools and it is welcome to see the local authority working quickly to examine similar walls across the education sites within its jurisdiction. <br/> <br/>"It is vital that the circumstances of this incident are carefully reviewed to develop a full picture of events leading up to it, with the ultimate aim of ascertaining what can be done to improve safety both at this site and at other schools across Scotland and the UK. <br/> <br/>"An incident of this nature raises serious concerns among both pupils and their families, with many seeking answers in relation to what happened and reassurances that the issues will simply not be repeated in the future. <br/> <br/>"Our thoughts are with the family affected by this truly awful incident."