Dist 300, bus copmany try to stop suit over student’s injury
Community Unit Community Unit District 300 and a bus company are trying to have dismissed a lawsuit from the mother of a special needs student who argues her daughter suffered a broken leg in October 2010 after being attacked by other students on a school bus.
Attorneys for District 300 and Durham School Service, the bus company, suggest the girl broke her leg after she got off the bus, and both entities should not be held responsible or just partially responsible, according to court documents.
Attorneys also sought to have the suit dismissed for several technical reasons.
“I’ve got a good case. If I have to take it to trial, that’s what I’m going to do,” said attorney Jeffrey Deutchmann, attorney for parent Cilvia Solis.
Deutchmann said the girl had a broken femur and any suggestion she injured herself after she got off the bus was ridiculous.
“My client is a handicapped, special education student. She got off the bus and her leg was broken,” he said. “She was injured on the bus (on Oct. 15, 2010). Shame on these people. I’d like to see what a jury says.”
Solis filed suit in October 2011 and seeks damages of more than $50,000 from the district and Durham.
The girl, who was in sixth grade at the time, was “kicked, pushed, hit and otherwise physically assaulted by other students on the bus. At no time was a school bus attendant provided to the bus in question,” the suit states.
Deutchmann, in the lawsuit, also argues it was the district’s duty to ensure the student was safe and a bus attendant should have been provided because “several of the other students riding that bus had a history of violence.”
Messages left with Melissa Lynott, attorney for the school district, and Thomas Weiler, attorney for Durham, were not returned.
Both sides are due in court Tuesday in Kane County.