Injured skateboarder seeks help at alma mater, instead gets Pleasant Grove High lifetime ban

PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama - Pleasant Grove High School was on temporary lockdown this afternoon when school officials thought there was an intruder inside the building.

The suspect, however, turned out to be a former student who had fallen on his skateboard and was looking for medical help. Police flocked to the scene, questioned the injured graduate and cleared the school of any threat.

"We found him sitting in the parking lot tending to his wounds,'' said Police Chief Corky Knight. "He couldn't figure out why we were there."

The former student, Knight said, had suffered a nasty skateboard spill. Skinned up from head to toe, he found his way into the school. Once he was spotted and school officials notified, the halls were cleared and the classroom doors locked tight to await the arrival of police.

Officers frisked the former student, listened to his story and lifted the lockdown. "The principal banned him from the school property forever,'' Knight said, "and we loaded him up in a police car and dropped him off somewhere else."

Knight said school and police officials have to take reports of an intruder seriously. "I don't really know how you cannot take it seriously,'' he said. "Ninety-nine times out of 100, it's what we just had. But, you just don't ever know."