Two Woodland Junior High students died Saturday in an ATV accident just outside Fayetteville’s city limits. Woodland Junior High Principal David McClure confirmed the deaths of eighth graders Savannah Parker and Olivia Pamungkas in an email sent to families Sunday afternoon.
The accident happened on private land approximately one mile outside Fayetteville city limits. It is a rural stretch off the Huntsville Road corridor where cornfields and ridgelines often dwarf the paved roads, making the crash felt acutely even by those living a few miles away in the subdivisions of Pinnacle Hills and Woodland Heights.
In the email, McClure wrote that school officials were notified Saturday night and immediately reached out to parents. “We were saddened to learn on Saturday night of the deaths of Savannah Parker and Olivia Pamungkas, who were students at Woodland, and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to their families,” McClure stated.
Woodland Junior High serves a diverse student body in north Fayetteville and northern Rogers. The school sits in a busy part of the district, a place where soccer fields are full on weekends and parents know their way around the Atkins Farm neighborhood. Losing two students from that cohort forces a pause on the academic calendar and brings a heavy, unwelcome weight to the classrooms.
McClure indicated the administration was working to provide additional grief counseling support to students and staff in the wake of the tragedy. With the school year barely a month old, getting used to new classes and locker combinations usually fills the mornings, but now counselors will likely be the most requested faces at Woodland for the foreseeable future.
Sunday evening, the community didn’t wait for an official invitation to mourn. Roughly 150 people showed up at Legacy Studio of Performing Arts on Razorback Road just outside Fayetteville.
The studio—a renovated industrial space sometimes used as a yoga barn or event venue—crowded with tealights and flowers. It was a scene out of a slower time. People stood in small huddles by the entrance, many wearing masks of shock, while others made their way inside to find seats. There were no speeches, just the soft flick
Source: Fayetteville Flyer