School Injury Compensation

The family of a young boy, who was paralysed in an attack by a known bully at his school, have resolved their claim for school bullying injury in an out-of-court settlement worth 4.2 million dollars.

Sawyer Rosenstein (18) of Woodland Park, New Jersey, was a student at the Eric Smith Middle School in Ramsay, New Jersey, and only twelve years of age in May 2006 when a fellow student – known to have a history of violent tendencies – punched him in the abdomen. The attack caused a blood clot to form which prevented blood from reaching Sawyer´s spine and permanently paralysed the young student from the waist down.

In the claim for school bullying injury brought by Sawyer´s parents, it was claimed that school officials were aware of the bully´s violent nature, yet had failed to record any of his misdemeanours or discipline the boy for any of his previous attacks. This failure in the school´s duty of care, they claimed, was in breach of New Jersey´s anti-bullying legislation which had been put in place to prevent this sort of incident occurring.

Sawyer´s parents supported their claim for school bullying injury by providing an email that Sawyer had written to his school guidance counsellor three months prior to the attack. In the email Sawyer had alerted his guidance counsellor to the fact that he was being bullied at school and asked for advice about how to cope with the attacks. He concluded the email “I would just like to put this on file so if something happens again, we can show that there was past bullying situations.”

After several months of negotiations, Ramsay School District agreed to a 4.2 million dollars settlement of Sawyer´s claim for school bullying injury without admission of liability. Sawyer is now a freshman at Syracuse University when he is majoring in communications.

A 22-year-old man, who sustained debilitating brain damage from playing American football at high school, has been awarded 4.4 million dollars in head injury at school compensation.

Scott Eveland from San Marcos, California, was just eighteen years of age when he collapsed at the side of the American football field on September 14th 2007 half way through a game in which he was playing as a linebacker for the Mission Hills High School Grizzlies.

Scott was rushed to hospital with internal bleeding around his brain, and doctors were only able to save his life after removing part of his skull. As the result of repetitive blunt trauma to his head throughout his playing career, Scott is now confined to a wheelchair and can only communicate through a specially adapted keyboard.

Scott´s mother – Diane – made a claim for school injury compensation against the San Marcos Unified School District, alleging that a lack of care by the football coaching staff had been responsible for Scott´s injury, and that Scott had complained of headaches to the team´s athletic trainer several weeks before which had caused him to miss practice.

Diane´s claim was supported by a teammate of Scott´s, who testified in a deposition that warning signs of Scott´s condition had been ignored and that Scott had asked the head coach if he could sit out from the game a few minutes before it began as he was feeling unwell.

After considering the evidence presented to them, the San Marcos Unified School District agreed to a head injury at school compensation settlement of 4.4 million dollars without admission of liability.

An eight-year-old boy who lost the tip of his middle finger is to receive 24,000 Euros for injury compensation for an accident in a school.

Circuit Court president, Mr. Justice Matthew Deery, heard how Benjamin Schonfeld of Clonskeagh, Dublin, was just 6 years of age when he caught his finger in a doorat St. Killian’s German School in January 2009.

Benjamin lost around 4mm from the tip of his left middle finger, and his injury resulted in a subsequent hooked nail deformity.

Suing the school through his father, Heino, the judge heard that a settlement assessment had been made by the Injuries Board Ireland which both parties accepted.

In approving the assessment of 23,000 Euros with a further 1,041 Euros costs, Mr. Justice Matthew Deery directed the school to pay the settlement into court for Benjamin’s benefit.