Two 13-year-old Mount Pleasant boys die in rollover accident Monday

• Tweet
• 

Two 13-year-old boys died in a rollover accident in Mecosta County Monday evening.

Riley Schlegel and Christopher Romer, both from Mount Pleasant, were pronounced dead at the scene after the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Department got the call at approximately 7:32 p.m.

Mecosta County Sheriff Todd Purcell said the two boys were riding in an oversized golf cart vehicle when they left the normal portion of the trail into some tall grass. The vehicle hit the brush in the ground, which caused the vehicle to roll over and land on top of them.

“The father of one of the occupants and his brother were out working on deer blinds at the time and felt that the boys should have been home, so they went out looking for them,” Purcell said. “It’s a very tragic event that occurred in our Mecosta family.”

The Mecosta County Sheriff was assisted by Wheatland Township Fire and Rescue, EMS and Michigan State Police.

Both Schlegel and Romer were eighth-grade students at West Intermediate School, 440 S. Bradley Road, said West Intermediate Principal Luke Stefanovsky.

“It’s a traumatic loss,” Stefanovsky said. “There’s not a lot of words that one could use right now.”

Stefanovsky said the school is prepared to begin working with students and handling the grieving process.

“We have turned to what we call our Student Support Crisis Team. We have a letter that we are mailing home to all parents,” Stefanovsky said. “We are handing teachers a scripted message to read at the start of our school day.”

Stefanovsky said there are three different locations in the school dedicated for students to have to the opportunity to talk with counselors. At the end of the work day, there will also be a session for staff who need help with their own grieving and managing the situation.

“We need to be prepared to help these seventh and eighth-graders through this situation,” Stefanovsky said.