Daniel Cho, a 17-year-old from Aragon High School, died Sunday after falling nearly 100 feet from a viewing platform at the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia during a school music trip.
Cho fell nearly 100 feet from the platform during a school trip Sunday night. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the death, on which they were not willing to rule, Michael McLaughlin, a constable with the RCMP, said in a press conference yesterday. An autopsy is scheduled for today, but full results will not be available for four to six weeks.
About 105 students and more than 20 chaperones arrived in Vancouver over the weekend for a music tour. The group was scheduled to remain in Canada through June 11.
Television reports described a rescue effort that required ropes to lower crews to the teen, who was dead once rescuers reached him.
On Monday morning, Aragon Principal Patricia Kurtz, a school counselor and a district official headed to the airport to meet with the students in Canada, said Matt Bigger, associate superintendent of instruction for the San Mateo Union High School District. The group will work together to determine if the trip should be cut short.
In the meantime, a local school in Canada and the police department offered counseling for the students, said Bigger. The Holiday Inn Express, where the group is staying, opened up conference rooms for the group to use.
"Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the guest who died tragically in an incident yesterday evening in the park. Based on information provided to us by the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police], the guest fell from a fenced viewing point on the west side of the park,” Sue Kaffka, vice president of sales and marketing for the Capilano Suspension Bridge, wrote in an online statement.
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The Capilano Suspension Bridge was originally built in 1889. Cables for the bridge have since been replaced multiple times. It is 450 feet long and 230 feet high.
Police and officials from the San Mateo Union High School District declined to name Cho. However, a memorial page in his honor on Facebook generated over 400 fans only three hours after going live yesterday.
Cho’s brother, who it appears started the memorial site, wrote of his love for Cho and how he will be missed.
"I know you would want me to keep my head up and keep trying hard in life. So I will keep grinding ... I can’t put into words what you meant to me man,” he wrote.
Students remembered Cho as a swimmer, band member and funny guy. Others admitted to not knowing Cho well, but being sorry over the news. Tweets about Cho’s death started an hour after the memorial site went live. He would have started his senior year in the fall.
Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.
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