North Fulton Student Dies in South Georgia Accident

A rising Northview High School senior passed away just days before the start of the 2014-15 school year.

Abbey Rice died on Friday, Aug. 8 in an accident during an “informal,” non-school sponsored volleyball team-building event in south Georgia, Fulton County Schools spokesperson Susan Hale told Patch.

Hale said Abbey was on an ATV with some members of the volleyball team when the vehicle toppled over and fatally wounded the student.

Hale, who said Abbey has been a student at the Johns Creek school since she was a freshman, added crisis counselors will be on hand for students and staff members as they return for the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 11.

Since Monday is the first day of school, Hale said “our focus is on providing support while also striving to keep the school day as normal as possible.”

“We have the deepest sympathy for the family and want to support them, as well as the others affected, during this tragic time by communicating only what they request,” Hale stated, adding the student’s father has been in touch with Northview’s principal.

A Give Forward page has been set up to help Abbey’s parents Tim and Roxanne Rice “cover travel expenses so they can be surrounded and supported by their out-of-town family, as well as funding meals, and other costs to ease their burden.”

“Abbey would have been the first person to set up a similar program and we all want to find comfort in doing something that we know will provide the Rice family some relief,” according to the Give Forward page.

(Photo: Abbey Rice. Credit: Give Forward)