Signal Mountain Middle-High School principal Tom McCullough said the mood Monday of students is cautiously hopeful for a junior who is in critical condition at Erlanger hospital after suffering a serious neck injury.
"There's still some hope right now that there may not be permanent paralysis," McCullough said.
David Anderson, 16, dove from a trampoline into an above-ground pool Sunday and did not immediately resurface. Jackson Cooper, a friend, jumped into the pool and pulled David out while another friend, Kari Sivley, ran inside to tell her parents to call 911.
Surgeons operated on David's vertebrae Sunday night.
His family could not be reached for comment, and Erlanger officials said the teen was in critical condition Monday afternoon.
McCullough said school staff went to the hospital Sunday night to support David's family. Counselors were on hand to help students with any questions, he said.
"We've had our share of accidents this summer," he said.
A fellow Signal Mountain student, Zachary Taylor, died July 24 and a another student sustained a serious neck injury over the summer but returned to school with a brace, McCullough said.
In an e-mail, Cindy Jackson, program coordinator for Erlanger's Safe and Sound - a childhood injury prevention program - said that more than 90 percent of trampoline injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms happen on home trampolines.
"A trampoline is not a toy and kids should not have access to one at home," Jackson wrote. "While most trampoline injuries are muscle injuries or broken legs, not fatalities, we also see serious head and neck injuries."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that "trampolines be used only as part of a supervised training program ... and not at home, at school or on playgrounds," according to an e-mail from Dr. Marvin Hall, pediatric intensive care specialist at Erlanger.