The plaintiff in a Kerr McGee lawsuit has filed a claim against the Columbus MS school district. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was injured at the Columbus High School on January 31, 1998 when she was struck by a high school student who was not in school security. This was a school that was named in the complaint as one of the schools that had failed to comply with the new Safe Schools Act.
The plaintiff says that she was taken to the hospital and then taken home to wait for an ambulance to take her to the hospital for further evaluation and treatment. She did go home and later went back to the Columbus High School to speak to the principal there and she noticed that many of the other students were not responding well to the Safe Schools Act.
The Columbus McGee lawsuit goes on to say that when the school administrators told the plaintiff about what happened she “was extremely angry.” She was also extremely scared, and so she went home to speak with her mother. It was then that the plaintiff’s mother found out that the child in the lawsuit was Kerr McGee.
When the plaintiff’s mother confronted Mcgee about what happened, Mcgee said that he could not recall anything that had occurred. He said that he was not present at the time of the incident and he could not give any details.
The plaintiff’s mother asked Mcgee about how Kerr Mcgee had was acting before the accident happened and Mcgee again denied being present when the incident occurred. He also denied that Kerr McGee had anything to do with the accident. However, in a police report, Kerr McGee is listed as having been at a party just before the accident happened that had no alcohol, drugs or adults around.
The lawsuit states that when the plaintiff’s mother confronted McGee, he again denied being involved in the accident and told her that he would be taking care of the liability for any damage caused by the incident. He said that he would not pay any money for the damages and would only cover the cost of medical and hospital bills, and the plaintiff’s parents would have to bear the rest.
The plaintiffs parents were not willing to take this offer, however, and they filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that the incident was not just another accident in the life of the McGee family; rather it was an intentional act on the part of the school district that was done to “punish” the plaintiff for speaking out against Safe Schools and the lack of due diligence in the Columbus School System. The lawsuit claims that the school district, by not putting McGee on paid leave for some time because of his opposition to the Safe Schools Act, tried to intimidate and bully the plaintiff into not speaking out or supporting Safe Schools and thus endangering her daughter’s safety and future.
The lawsuit also claims that the plaintiff was subjected to racial slurs, that the school administrators made jokes about the incident that implied that the plaintiff was unfit for school, that the incident was not an accident at all but was done intentionally, that Kerr Mcgee was made aware of the lawsuit on several occasions and that the district has failed to provide proper legal and educational protection to the plaintiff’s family in regard to Kerr McGee’s case. The lawsuit has been resolved, although no settlement amount has been determined at this time.
While McGee’s lawsuit does point out a number of problems with the district, some of those concerns were addressed during the Safe Schools review process. Some of the concerns, including the lack of proper medical and other services, the increased violence in the community and the inability to be certain that all students are receiving an equal education, have been addressed. Other issues, including an inability to provide proper medical attention to the injured child, were addressed by the Safe Schools Board during the review process. that has led to improvements in the community’s health and safety and a reduction in the number of children that are injured in Columbus schools.
The district is well aware that the Safe Schools program will be implemented for the next two years in the Columbus Schools System. As long as that program exists, it can be assumed that the Safe Schools Program will be effective.
It is not clear whether the lawsuit will have any impact on the Safe Schools program in Columbus MS, although it might have an indirect impact, since the Safe Schools review process may have led to an increase in parental involvement in the classroom. If the lawsuit were successful and Kerr McGee’s case goes to trial, it might force the Columbus Schools District to do more to protect its students from peer pressure and intimidation.
