Hopeful at Parker High

Hopeful signs for boys injured in tug of war at Lutheran HS

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

October 15, 2007

Two high school juniors who nearly severed their right hands in a game of tug of war during a pep rally Friday have undergone surgery and are doing well, police and school officials said today.
"From what we understand, blood is flowing to their hands — a very optimistic sign," said Randy Lowe, chief executive officer of Lutheran High School in Parker, where the incident happened.

Elise Penington, spokeswoman for the town of Parker, said the teens — identified by 9News as Henry Barrett and Mitch Helfer — were participating in the contest between juniors and seniors in advance of Saturday's homecoming game.

"There was like 40 to 50 kids on each side of the rope," she said. "A couple of them, these kids included, had just wrapped the rope really tightly around their hands."

Penington said police are calling the students' injuries a partial amputation.

"I don't know if that means that it was completely ripped off or just bones completely broken apart," she said.

Lowe declined to elaborate on the students' injuries, only saying that it was a "freak accident."

The gymnasium was packed with students at the time.

"The kids who witnessed it were pretty traumatized," Penington said. "It was a pep rally, so all the kids that were there that day were in there watching it."

Lowe and Penington said counselors with the Douglas County Crisis Advocacy Group have been available to students and staff since Friday. School officials met with parents on Saturday, she said.

The student body is doing "very well," Lowe said.

"It's a phenomenal group of young students that we have here, very strong in their faith life and that helps immensely," he said.

Saturday's homecoming game was rescheduled for today at 4 p.m., Principal Juls Clausen said.