AKRON — A community is mourning the loss of a student after a freak accident took her life.

The Tippecanoe Valley High School student died after she was accidentally hit on the school's track by a bicycle ridden by a classmate.

She has been identified as 17-year-old Evelyn Bolen. Everyone who knew her said she will be missed.

Although the buses are running and students are in class, it's a dark day for Tippecanoe Valley High School.

"We're just trying to deal with the grief and the tragedy," said Superintendent Brett Boggs. "I think once we get through that we can get into those questions and get more specific and find out some of those details."

Bolen was walking the track with a group of girlfriends as part of her physical education class when another student got on the teacher's bike and started riding around the track, accidentally slamming into her.

"There was a very faint pulse, but she did have some pulse,” Boggs said. “Her breathing was a real issue at that point in time; I don't know if she actually was breathing."

Staff members performed CPR until emergency crews arrived. They took her to a hospital in Warsaw, then to Fort Wayne.

Bolen died Wednesday evening.

"She just was very honest, open ... a lot of kids worry about being cool and what others think of them and that was not her,” Boggs said. “She was just a very genuine person, a very loving person, and somebody that just everybody liked."

The death of Evelyn Bolen, who has been in the school district since kindergarten, has hit the community hard as well as the students.

“The kids are struggling, too, and this is ... I'm sorry,” Boggs said, choking up.

Counselors are available at the school to help students and staff.