FARMINGTON – Parents of an 8-year-old girl who had a fingertip severed in a door at W.G. Mallet School last year have filed a lawsuit against SAD 9 and a former principal.
Dennis and Jennie Hutchinson of Industry filed the two-count suit in Franklin County Superior Court on Wednesday on behalf of their daughter Michaela. They asked the court to demand judgment against SAD 9 and former Principal Melvin Burnham to compensate for medical bills, physical pain and reduced earning capacity for their daughter throughout her life.
Michael E. Saucier, attorney for SAD 9 and Burnham, said Friday that they plan to file a formal response within the allotted 20 days. He declined further comment.
Gerald K. Williams, the Hutchinsons’ attorney, was unavailable for comment Friday.
The lawsuit claims officials were negligent because they knew the danger of not adequately maintaining automatic door closers at the school, and that they violated their own policies by driving Michaela to the hospital in a personal vehicle.
The suit also claims that in 2004, when Michaela was injured, district officials were or should have been aware that another child nearly lost a fingertip in an automatic door closer at the school in 1999.
Before the tip of Michaela’s left ring finger was severed in the incident, SAD 9 staff and students had complained that the second-floor girls’ bathroom door closer was malfunctioning, the suit alleges.
The school was built in 1933 and had original Corbin automatic door closers in the upstairs bathrooms. Schoolchildren developed the habit of dragging their left hand across the back of the doors to prevent them from closing suddenly and knocking them to the floor, the suit claims.
After Michaela’s accident, a second-grade teacher tried to stop the bleeding and took her to the principal’s office, according to the suit.
By the time Burnham decided to drive Michaela to the hospital, about 30 minutes had passed, the suit alleges, and it was too late to attempt to reattach the fingertip..
The suit claims the girl will suffer some loss of employment because of her injury, and that she has undergone several surgeries and has suffered from infections and disfigurement. She also has to limit her physical activities until her hand has reached adult size, the suit alleges.
Comments are no longer available on this story