I've seen this situation before. If the sprinkler heads did not have protective caps on them, then it was the school that was negligent. The caps likely would have prevented this accident.

I've seen this picture before, blame the kids for things that go wrong in the world of adults. Whoever did approve not installing caps or decided not to shut off the sprinklers until the fire department came is negligent as well.

It's a high school, stuff happens. If it was a college, I could see the point, but it's not. The school bears some responsibility for both the lack of protection and the failure to turn off the system before the fire department arrived.

I don't disagree with some amount of negligence on the part of the school, if there are protective caps that could be installed to provide extra protection. Also, if the sprinklers could have been turned off earlier, fine. However, aren't most sprinkler heads on the *ceilings* of facilities? What were these kids doing, shooting upper 90 at the trophy cases? Working on their headers? And if they were, WHY? In a hallway? Yes, stuff happens because kids are kids, but SHOULD it? Should protective caps be necessary if kids shouldn't be playing soccer IN A HALLWAY to begin with? GO OUTSIDE. Playing soccer in a hallway of a high school isn't proper behavior. I don't think the lack of maturity or the ability to make smart decisions on the part of high school kids can be ignored in situations like this.

Students playing with a soccer ball or any other kind of ball inside the school is not negligence unless there was a school rule prohibiting it, which I doubt. It is very common to see kids juggling balls and bouncing balls off walls everywhere. Hallways are not a dangerous place compared to other areas of the school. Fire sprinklers are in every room of the school including gyms.