GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A prayer candle and two Gatorade bottles stuffed with flowers sit at the base of a retaining wall at Briggs Field. The memorial grieves the loss of a Grand Rapids Public Schools staff member who died on Tuesday while working at the district facility.
This afternoon, four employees at GRPS took time out of their lunch break to remember the nearly two-year member of the Facilities & Operations Department. For a few minutes in the early afternoon sun, they stood in front of the flowers on the west end of the track. Nearby, a green ribbon with "RIP" scrawled onto its streamers stood guard from a chain-link fence.
"This is just about as bad as it gets," said Leon Hendrix, executive director of communications for the district.
In an interview on Tuesday, Hendrix said that the incident happened shortly after noon, and involved a riding lawnmower. He also noted that no students saw what happened.
"When someone is hurting, we wrap our arms around that person," Hendrix said about the GRPS community. "I know that in this occurrence, the response will be no different."
While standard procedure dictates that the Grand Rapids Police Department investigate the death, they told FOX 17 that there is "nothing to suggest it wasn't anything other than an accidental death."
The victim has not yet been identified and the investigation will remain open until the Kent County Medical Examiner releases a formal ruling on the cause of death.
"We are devastated by this loss," GRPS Superintendent Dr. Leadriane Roby said in a statement on Tuesday. "In this difficult time, please keep our colleague’s family at work and at home in your thoughts."
