Owasso Schools puts playground equipment off-limits

OWASSO - Funeral services for a 9-year-old Wyandotte girl are set for Wednesday morning.

The fourth grader died after she was injured on a playground her elementary school.

Alyssa Avila fell-off of a piece of equipment called an X-Wave; she was hit in the head while trying to get back on.

The X-Wave is similar to a teeter-totter that's connected on the ends.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's office hadn't completed its autopsy report.

"At this point we're not able to rule out it's not a medical condition aggravated by just the initial fall-off the equipment. So it's just too early to speculate," Wyandotte Police Chief Ken Murphy said.

Owasso Superintendent Dr. Clark Ogilvie is one of several Oklahoma school administrators who are waiting to hear more information.

He called all of his principals over the weekend and he found out that three of the elementaries have the X-Wave: Ator, Hodson and Smith.

The equipment has been in-place for about 2 years.

"What I instructed our principals to do, the ones that had the piece of equipment, Monday morning is to put it off-limits right now pending further investigation," Dr. Ogilvie told 2NEWS.

The X-wave is certified by the International Playground Equipment Manufactures Association.

School districts and cities look to the group when making such purchases.

"Regardless of the equipment it happened on, it's just the fact that something like this happened is a terrible thing," Greg and Dawn Parks have a son and daughter about the same age as Alyssa.

The family likes coming to a city playground near their home in Jenks; it's also equipped with an X-Wave.

The Parks say Alyssa's death is reminder of how close children have to be watched, "It's a tragedy what happened to the little girl, [I] wouldn't want that to happen to my little girl, of course. But, we're not going to hide from the world."

Funeral services for Avila are set for 9 o'clock Wednesday morning at the Wyandotte High School gym.

2NEWS has not heard back from the City of Jenks about its plans for the X-Wave at its facilities.

The Tulsa Park's Department tells us it does not have the equipment at its playgrounds.