By City News Service
The Glendale Unified School District and a girl who says she fainted after being required to perform in hot conditions at a campus Christmas holiday recital in 2017 have reached a tentative settlement in the student’s lawsuit.
On Wednesday, the girl’s attorney filed court papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa R. Jaskol notifying her of a “conditional” accord that is subject to approval by the GUSD Board of Education. No terms were divulged.
The girl, now 16 and an Altadena resident, was 10 years old and a student at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School when she became unconscious and fell down the stage steps on Dec. 8, 2017, suffering a head injury, several chipped teeth and a laceration that required 16 stitches.
The school is a K-6 campus, and the suit alleges negligent supervision of students.
According to the suit, students were required to stand close together while they prepared to rehearse in the school auditorium.
“Causing children to stand upright for nearly one hour in hot and congested conditions was an unsafe practice and a deviation from the standard of care by instructors at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School,” the plaintiff’s attorneys argued in their court papers.
No instruction was provided to the children on alternative ways to deal with the heat and exhaustion, the suit alleged.
An attorney for the district wrote in her court papers that the fainting occurred in the winter and that there was no history of students passing out or otherwise being injured in the auditorium during the rehearsals.
First published in the December 23 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
