INDIANAPOLIS — Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. has formally responded to a civil lawsuit alleging negligence and discrimination over the death of a special education student last year — allegations that it denies.
The lawsuit, filed in May in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, alleges that staff failed to timely recognize that an intellectually disabled student was experiencing seizures on a school bus, resulting in delayed medical attention and ultimately her death a few days later.
The complaint names BCSC, the BCSC School Board, Columbus North High School, the Indiana State Board of Education and unnamed staff who operated school buses and provided transportation services to students. The BCSC defendants filed a collective response to the allegation.
“Defendants deny that they were negligent, engaged in wrongful conduct or violated (the student’s) constitutional rights and further deny that (the student’s) hospitalization and death were the result of defendants’ actions,” BCSC states in its response, which was filed Sept. 20.
The student, who was participating in an individualized educational program at Columbus North High School, started experiencing seizures while on a school bus in April 2023, according to a copy of the complaint.
The plaintiffs — the student’s biological grandmother and maternal uncle — allege that staff on board the bus “failed to timely recognize and respond to (the student’s) seizures.” The student was later admitted to Columbus Regional Hospital and transferred to Indiana University Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where she died.
The plaintiffs allege that the delayed medical attention caused them to incur medical costs, as well as funeral and burial expenses. They are being represented by Valparaiso attorney Steven L. Langer.
The plaintiffs further allege that the student’s individualized educational program stipulated that she should have a private one-on-one school nurse with her while at school to “help her participate in more activities with the class and to give her breathing treatments, feedings and changes.”
However, the nurse or bus assistant allegedly was not seated next to her on the bus when the seizures started, according to the complaint.
The student, who is described in court records as having “a severe intellectual disability while also being diagnosed with asthma, seizure disorder and cerebral palsy, among other issues,” was “mostly non-verbal and communicated mainly by using her eyes and thus … had difficulty communicating her needs in the event of an emergency,” according to the complaint.
BCSC, for its part, states in its response that the student’s individualized educational program did not require her “nurse or a bus assistant to be seated next to her on the bus, nor did defendants play any role in the decision to not have (her) private nurse ride on the bus with her.”
The school corporation further states in its response that it provided seizure training to bus drivers and monitors and denied allegations that the student’s individualized educational program, doctor’s notes, seizure protocol or transportation plan “required any specific seizure training.”
“While (the student) had a private nurse who attended school with her, that nurse did not ride the bus with (her) at the direction of either the family or the nurse’s employer,” BCSC said in a court management plan filed earlier this month. “On April 14, 2023, after the bus transporting (her) arrived at Columbus North, a medically licensed professional directed staff to call 911 after being concerned about (the student’s) condition. School staff responded appropriately in accordance with their skills and training, which complied with applicable law and (her) individualized education program.”
The complaint includes claims of negligence, wrongful child death, and violations of the U.S. Constitution, among other claims. The lawsuit was pending in federal court as of Friday.
