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| Would you want your child to have a rope around their neck and the school saying that this was a playful accident? |
Now the little girl got a scar that's so noticeable, the law is getting involved in this.
Live Oak Classical School is being sued for a $3 million in damages for allowing this to happen.
The New York Times report that the school is denying that race was a factor to this incident.
Lawyers for the girl, who is identified in court papers filed on Monday only as K.P., said evidence suggested that race played a role in the episode, which occurred during an overnight outing in April by students from the Live Oak Classical School in Waco. The girl was 12 at the time.
But while lawyers for the girl and the school agree that something happened to the student, they disagree about virtually everything else — whether what occurred had been a deliberate act, the severity of her injuries, who was to blame and if race was a motivation.
The girl’s mother, Sandy Rougely, said in an interview on Thursday that she thought her daughter was wearing a necklace when she first saw her after the trip. She said when she learned that the marks had been caused by a rope, “that just tore me into pieces.”
“It looked like somebody ripped my daughter’s neck off and stitched it back together,” Rougely said. The marks are still visible, she added.
Rougely said she took her daughter to an emergency room, where she was treated for severe rope burns, and the police were called.
Lawyers for both sides said the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office was investigating. Sheriff’s officials could not immediately be reached.
According to the lawsuit, the girl had transferred in 2014 from a public school to Live Oak, which has about 400 students in junior kindergarten through 12th grade and affirms the principles of Christianity. It is made up predominantly of white children, the suit says. Rougely said her daughter had a partial scholarship to attend the $7,000-a-year school.
The girl had been flourishing in fifth grade, the suit said, but in sixth grade, she reported that her classmates would not talk to her and physically bullied her. She was pushed to the ground, and a classmate kicked and shoved her when a teacher was not looking, court papers said. Rougely said school officials blamed her daughter, and when the mother met with administrators and counselors, she felt rebuffed.
It was against this backdrop that the girl and 21 other students went on the trip to a bucolic property near Johnson City, TX., for an end-of-year school trip on April 28.
The lawsuit said the episode occurred at a swing: a disc-shape basket hanging from a tree with a separate rope that the children pulled to lift the swing higher. The girl said she had been pulling on the rope but then became tired and stood to the side. She then felt the rope around her neck, and she was “violently jerked” to the ground.
“When it got around my neck, no one helped me, so I had to pull it off by myself,” she said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.
Live Oak Classical School is being sued for a $3 million in damages for allowing this to happen.
The New York Times report that the school is denying that race was a factor to this incident.
Lawyers for the girl, who is identified in court papers filed on Monday only as K.P., said evidence suggested that race played a role in the episode, which occurred during an overnight outing in April by students from the Live Oak Classical School in Waco. The girl was 12 at the time.
But while lawyers for the girl and the school agree that something happened to the student, they disagree about virtually everything else — whether what occurred had been a deliberate act, the severity of her injuries, who was to blame and if race was a motivation.
The girl’s mother, Sandy Rougely, said in an interview on Thursday that she thought her daughter was wearing a necklace when she first saw her after the trip. She said when she learned that the marks had been caused by a rope, “that just tore me into pieces.”
“It looked like somebody ripped my daughter’s neck off and stitched it back together,” Rougely said. The marks are still visible, she added.
Rougely said she took her daughter to an emergency room, where she was treated for severe rope burns, and the police were called.
Lawyers for both sides said the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office was investigating. Sheriff’s officials could not immediately be reached.
According to the lawsuit, the girl had transferred in 2014 from a public school to Live Oak, which has about 400 students in junior kindergarten through 12th grade and affirms the principles of Christianity. It is made up predominantly of white children, the suit says. Rougely said her daughter had a partial scholarship to attend the $7,000-a-year school.
The girl had been flourishing in fifth grade, the suit said, but in sixth grade, she reported that her classmates would not talk to her and physically bullied her. She was pushed to the ground, and a classmate kicked and shoved her when a teacher was not looking, court papers said. Rougely said school officials blamed her daughter, and when the mother met with administrators and counselors, she felt rebuffed.
It was against this backdrop that the girl and 21 other students went on the trip to a bucolic property near Johnson City, TX., for an end-of-year school trip on April 28.
The lawsuit said the episode occurred at a swing: a disc-shape basket hanging from a tree with a separate rope that the children pulled to lift the swing higher. The girl said she had been pulling on the rope but then became tired and stood to the side. She then felt the rope around her neck, and she was “violently jerked” to the ground.
“When it got around my neck, no one helped me, so I had to pull it off by myself,” she said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.
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