Counselors supporting students after classmate dies

Counselors supporting students after classmate dies

By HANA KIM
Good Morning Tennessee Reporter

OAK RIDGE (WATE) -- Administrators at Robertsville Middle School are supporting students as well as a school bus driver after the tragic death of a 12-year-old girl run over by a bus last Friday.

Some Robertsville students stayed home Monday. Their classmate, Ashley Paine, passed away Sunday morning at UT Medical Center.

But for the majority of students who attended school, counselors were on hand.

"They've been very supportive of each other. They've been talking with counselors, with their homeroom teachers and talking with each other trying to process it and work through it," says Principal Mike Barker. 

In fact, the Oak Ridge school district sent all its counselors and psychologists to Robertsville Middle, paying extra attention to the more than 20 students who were on the bus during the accident.

"Our focus right now is to deal with the emotions. People are grieving. Some students got off the bus and saw things and some didn't," says Superintendent Thomas Bailey. 

And the trauma may be worse for the woman who was driving the school bus, Janice Griffith.

Administrators say Griffith is having a very hard time but believes what happened was an accident. They hope to have her back at work whenever she's ready.

As standard procedure, Oak Ridge police are investigating the incident. However, test results released Monday indicate Griffith wasn't under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the accident.

All after school activities were canceled Monday in remembrance of Ashley.

And at the intersection where Ashley was run over, flowers, stuffed animals and balloons that say, "I love you" are being left in her honor.

Ashley's family donated seven of her organs, including her heart and her lungs, to help save other lives. They're now being matched to people on the national transplant list.

The staff at UT Medical Center already knows some of the recipients will be Tenneseans. "It's bitter sweet," says Bridgett Smith, with UT. "Her family is going to feel this loss forever. But so many people are going to be helped because her parents decided to donate her organs."

A fund has been established for the Paine family, to help with their expenses from this tragedy.

Donations can be mailed to Calvary Baptist Church. The address is: 163 North Jefferson Circle, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830.

Funeral arrangements for Ashley are still pending.