Basketball goal that killed Joplin High School senior was substandard

The Joplin Globe reports that the basketball goal that fell and killed Joplin High School senior Spencer Nicodemus lacked certain safety features.

The revelation came in a joint statement issued by lawyers for the Joplin R-8 School District and for the Nicodemus family:

The basketball goal that fell in the Irving Elementary School gymnasium last month and fatally injured a high school student "did not have certain safety features either designed into it, manufactured or installed that would have prevented this tragedy," the attorneys for the Joplin School District and the student's family jointly told the Globe on Friday.