Prayer vigil held for Graham Middle School student

SAINT PARIS — People in a small Champaign County community are mourning the loss of a young boy.

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Seventh-grader Ryley Savage died from injuries in an incident on Tuesday, Superintendent Chad Lensman said Thursday.

“This is a terrible tragedy for the Savage family members, our students, staff, and the entire Graham Falcon family,” he said.

A community-wide prayer vigil was held for Ryley Sunday evening at the auditorium in Graham Middle School.

News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis spoke with Lensman about the circumstances surrounding Ryley’s death.

All the district knows is that there was an accident that happened at his home Tuesday night and CareFlight responded, he told Lewis.

The district posted on its Facebook page Wednesday saying it was planning to have guidance staff, counselors and clergy available to help students and staff deal with tragedy.

Lensman said to Lewis when something like this happens, this tight knit community finds a way to come together.

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“Middle school is already hard enough,” he said. “Then you put something like this on top of it so we’ve got to make sure that we have lots of support in place for the students and staff and making sure that the upcoming days, upcoming weeks we continue to provide those supports in the school setting.”

The superintendent used to be the assistant principal at Graham Elementary School when Ryley was a student and got to know him.

While details about what happened have not been released, the district posted on social media Wednesday that a seventh-grade student suffered “a severe injury” outside of school.

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