911 caller says she asked to have Riviera Elementary display board tightened before it fell

A Riviera Elementary School staff member told a 911 dispatcher that she had asked for a classroom display board to be tightened shortly before it fell and killed a 5-year-old boy, according to newly released 911 calls.

Bellamy Dawkins-Morris died Oct. 7 after a Promethean interactive display board that had been mounted on a classroom wall fell on him inside the Palm Bay school. The district has said the board weighed about 120 pounds. Teachers and staff gave aid and called 911, and Bellamy was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center, where he died.

Ten days later, Palm Bay police and an independent third party are investigating, and attorneys for Bellamy’s family are conducting their own review. None has said publicly why the board fell.

What the 911 caller said

The City of Palm Bay released the 911 calls this week. Neither News 6 nor Florida Today identified the caller beyond describing her as school staff. According to both outlets, she told the dispatcher she had asked for the board to be tightened. News 6 reported she said that was about a week before; Florida Today reported she said it was a few days before.

The caller also described the boy handling the board before it fell. News 6 reported she said he took the board off the wall and was kicking the screen, and Florida Today reported she said he kept kicking it after she asked him to stop. Bellamy’s family has said he had autism, and family members previously told WFTV he had been moving the display before it fell.

The calls, as reported, don’t say who received the tightening request, whether a work order was filed or whether anyone did the work. The caller’s account was given during an emergency, and investigators have not confirmed it.

The district’s response

Brevard Public Schools said Thursday, Oct. 15, that it had listened to the 911 call. “Our initial internal inspections after this tragedy did not identify any visibly loose screws,” the district said in a statement. “However, an independent third party is conducting their own investigation, and we will share that once the investigation has concluded.”

The district said inspections of every Promethean board began right after Bellamy’s death and are ongoing. “The Palm Bay Police Department’s investigation remains ongoing as well, and Brevard Public Schools continues to fully cooperate,” the statement said. “As this is an open investigation, we are limited in the information we can share at this time.” The statement did not say whether the “no visibly loose screws” finding covered the board that fell.

District spokesperson Janet Murnaghan told Florida Today that district technicians are inspecting interactive boards on every campus. The district’s installation contractor, Atlantis Electrical Systems, will then do a separate inspection, followed by an independent safety review by an outside specialist. Murnaghan said the district has not yet received the inspection report, and all video board installations are suspended until the inspection is finished. The district said earlier that the boards were installed by the licensed contractor according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.

Promethean, the board’s manufacturer, told WFTV it had offered cooperation and technical help to the district and police. The company said it had not received details about the specific display, stand, mount or installation and would not speculate while the investigations continue.

An outside inspector’s offer

After Bellamy’s death, Patrick Rodriguez-Roberts, owner of the Palm Bay audiovisual contractor The ElectPros, offered on Facebook to inspect every Promethean board in Brevard for free, Florida Today reported. He had previously contracted with the district to mount TVs. The district declined, saying the inspections would be done internally.

He has since inspected six private and charter schools, and only two passed, he said. “We’ve noticed some issues [with] the quality of installation,” he said. “We tell them to get it reinstalled either by us or someone else, there’s not much else we can do other than advise.” After his company flagged its boards, Trinity Lutheran School in Rockledge posted on Facebook that students would not use the boards until the issues were fixed.

The family’s attorneys

Bellamy’s family has hired Michael Haggard and Maegan Bridwell of The Haggard Law Firm. “Our job now that we’ve been retained by the family is to identify anyone who was responsible for not only the design, but the installation and the maintenance of this heavy, heavy equipment installed in our classrooms,” Bridwell told WFTV. No agency has assigned responsibility.

What’s still unknown

• Who received the tightening request, and whether a work order or maintenance ticket exists.

• Whether the board that fell was among those the district says showed no visibly loose screws.

• Who is conducting the independent investigation, and when its findings will be released.

• Whether and when Palm Bay police will release findings.

• When the boards at Riviera were installed, and how many boards districtwide have needed repair or remounting.

321 Daily will update this story as investigators release findings.