GMC Prep Student Hospitalized After School Mandated Workout

MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A teenager at Georgia Military College Preparatory School is recovering in the hospital after she over exerted herself during a military style form of physical punishment. Now the school is conducting an investigation into the case.

41NBC spoke to the teen and her mother who say this shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but are glad the school is taking the right steps to prevent a future incident.

16-year-old Rose O’Donnell is in better shape now than she was a week ago.

“Anytime I tried to flex my arms it would be extremely painful and there was a lot of stiffness and swelling,” Rose said.

All because of the extreme exercises she endured last Tuesday during “bullring,” which is similar to a detention, at GMC Preparatory School. She says it was the pushups and pressure that pushed her over the edge.

“I didn’t know at the time that I was hurting myself as much as I was but I never really stopped to think about it because I was so determined to finish and work hard,” the teenager said.

Rose went to the hospital the next day. Doctors diagnosed her with rhabdomyolysis.

“When I overworked the muscles in my arms, the cells within those muscles burst, releasing enzymes in my body and too high a count of these enzymes can cause shut down of the kidneys and kidney failure,” Roze said.

Her mother says the school should have stepped in.

“In this school, you have a lot of high achievers and failing and quitting is not an option for them,” Norma O’Donnell said. “By putting it in their hands, the ability to say when is enough , I don’t think is a safe routine.”

After the incident, the college and campus police opened an investigation. GMC released the following statement, “A Georgia Military College (GMC) Preparatory School student was injured while taking part in supervised physical exercise activity. The student was hospitalized, is recovering, and expects to be released soon. As a result of the the incident, the Principal of the GMC Preparatory School immediately initiated an investigation, place one staff member on leave, and suspended some physical exercise activities and modified others.”

Despite what happened, both Rose and her mother believe GMC has learned from this incident and hope something like this doesn’t happen again.

“I really believe and hope it won’t happen again and that hopefully I can be an example to create positive change,” Rose said.

Rose is expected to be okay. She hopes to be released from the hospital on Friday and can’t wait to get back to school.