Old band tower collapses at Frisco high school, injures four minors

A weathered band tower at Centennial High School collapsed Thursday evening as students were climbing it, injuring four minors and sending three of them to nearby hospitals. Frisco police said the 30-foot structure fell at about 6:45 p.m. on May 28, and FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported that the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

The immediate safety questions are straightforward: why the old tower was still accessible, whether it had been inspected or flagged before the collapse, and what supervision was in place when students climbed it. Officials had not released the identities of the students or details on their conditions, citing privacy concerns, but the incident has already put campus safety and oversight at the center of the conversation.

Frisco Independent School District said its maintenance team would secure the area with safety fencing before dismantling the fallen structure, and the district asked the community to avoid the site. The district’s crisis communications guidance says Frisco ISD works directly with fire and police officials during emergencies and may withhold some information temporarily if releasing it could interfere with law enforcement efforts or campus security.

Centennial High School, the second high school to open in Frisco ISD, sits in a district that now serves more than 62,000 students across 12 high schools. That size gives the collapse wider significance across Collin County and North Texas, especially because the tower was described as old rather than newly built. The question now is not only what failed at Centennial, but whether similar aging extracurricular structures at other Frisco ISD campuses need a fresh review.

A follow-up account from one of the teens involved added more detail about how the collapse unfolded. The student said the group had been practicing soccer nearby, then climbed the tower one by one before it tipped over. According to that account, one friend broke an elbow, another was unconscious and a third suffered a concussion.

For parents and school officials, the fallout will likely extend beyond the damaged tower itself. The collapse has turned an ordinary piece of school infrastructure into a test of maintenance, supervision and access control across one of the region’s largest districts.