DANVILLE — A crew member for a company that installs athletic and recreational seating components said the failure of a safety railing during a pep rally last week was unique.

“This is the first time we have been back for anything like this,” said Ed Currie, foreman with Recreation Resource, Kennett Square.

He and his crew expected to install nine aluminum uprights and replace 42 feet of top aluminum railing in time for a soccer game after school Thursday.

Danville’s football team hosts Selinsgrove tonight at the stadium.

“The manufacturer goes all over the country,” Currie said of Outdoor Aluminum, of Alabama.

The weight of students leaning over the railing during a pep rally Sept. 18 made the railing give way. Three students suffered minor injuries.

The juniors were competing in a contest to see who could make the most noise and leaned over the rail to get closer to a noise meter.

School Superintendent Susan Bickford said the damage was estimated at $3,500. She hopes it will be covered by insurance.

The railing and chain link fence attached to it were installed in the 2000-01 school year.

Bickford said Recreation Resource employees checked the uprights for signs of stress.

They installed joints at the top of the railing, where supports were, rather than in the middle, where there was nothing to support them.

In the future, there may be changes at pep rallies, she said. “We may be doing it a little bit differently on how we do the competition,” she said.

She has talked with high school Principal Craig Burger, who has ideas on ways to change the pep rallies.

When a joint at the top of the chain link fence snapped, about a dozen students fell about three feet to the ground on top of each other.

A girl and a boy were injured, and school officials urged their parents to have them examined at a hospital. A boy notified school officials Tuesday he cut his thumb during the incident. His parents also were advised to have a doctor look at him, Bickford said.