It was back in May when this story first made major headlines after a 12-year old Black student of Waco, Texas’s Live Oak Classical School sustained a major rope burn as a result of her white classmates wrapping a rope around her neck and “violently” jerking her to the ground during an overnight trip to Germer Ranch in Blanco County, Texas.
The incident, documented through graphic images of the injuries on the young girl’s body, now comes with a hefty price to pay potentially, as parents Sandy Rougely and Kevin Parker are suing the school and are seeking $3 million in damages, covering the cost of medical bills, physical and mental pain, disfigurement, and what they call loss of enjoyment of life of their daughter.
The suit reports they are suing for such an amount “to not only compensate the victims in this case, but to deter this type of egregious conduct from others in the future, and to serve as an example to all educational institutions that this type of behavior is unacceptable.”
The incident is told as follows: during the April 28 trip to Germer Ranch, the young girl only described as K.P. was with classmates after they found a rope swing and began taking turns on it. K.P. stood to the side as others used it. During one swing, she felt the rope wrap around her neck, according to the lawsuit, and she was “violently jerked to the ground with the pull-rope wrapped around her neck.” The three boys who performed the vicious act were all white.
“It’s nearly impossible to argue that this was somehow an accident that could have happened to any child that day, regardless of race,” said Levi G. McCathern, the family’s attorney. “The severity and specificity of the injury certainly point to this incident being racial, but because the incident occurred behind K.P., and because no chaperone or teacher was there to see how the rope got around her neck, only the children involved know the motivation behind this incident.”
The lawsuit detailed several instances of bullying prior to this incident during the school year, alleging that K.P came home in the fall “with disturbing reports that her classmates did not accept her, would not talk with her, and even physically bullied her.” The complaint lists one boy as having pushed her to the ground in the cubby room and kicking and shoving her during a class assignment when a teacher was not looking.
Sandy Rougely says that when she went to Live Oak with complaints about these incidents, the “school’s response was that the bullying had been an ‘accident,’ and the boy had not meant to push K.P. to the ground,” according to the suit.
“I have interviewed the students, the chaperones and the doctor who treated the student right after the accident, and the information I obtained points to nothing but an unfortunate accident,” said David Deaconson, the school’s lawyer. “This is a private school that people choose to either attend or not. There is a public school choice in Waco ISD. If a child is truly being bullied in a private school throughout the school year and the parent is concerned about bullying and the school’s alleged lack of concern, would a parent re-enroll their child for the next school year?”
The school maintains that the incident was accidental. However, the lawsuit claims that because none of the boys, or any other children, attempted to help K.P. off the ground the incident was not accidental. The family also alleges that Allison Buras, the school’s Dean, did not look into the incident, and failed to notify K.P.’s mother of the young girl’s injuries.
“Even if this incident was unintentional, the school’s lack of supervision to let this happen, dismissive and tone deaf response after it happened, and refusal to investigate until legally prompted to, showed an utter disregard for one of the only African American children in the school,” says the lawsuit. “Even ignoring what or who caused this injury, the school’s failure to notify the injured child’s mother is inexcusable and reckless.”
