{"id":658,"date":"2019-02-04T10:13:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/?p=658"},"modified":"2019-02-04T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:13:15","slug":"kickapoo-mud-pit-lawsuit-settled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/negligence\/kickapoo-mud-pit-lawsuit-settled\/","title":{"rendered":"Kickapoo ‘mud pit’ Lawsuit Settled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In one of the odder lawsuits we\u2019ve\nseen in the Springfield, Missouri area, the \u2018mud put\u2019 injury lawsuit has\nfinally come to an end. This lawsuit involved Springfield Public Schools and\nKickapoo High School. While the Springfield Public Schools group denies any\nwrongdoing, they have agreed to pay a sum of $423,106 to settle a lawsuit filed\nby a former student of Kickapoo High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This lawsuit revolves around a 2011\nincident<\/a>, when the graduate was\nstomped into a muddy pit during a back-to-school program, leaving her with significant\ninjuries. The student, Megan Taylor, at the time aged 17, suffered from\nsignificant damage whilst attending the \u201cHow Night,\u201d a popular annual event at\nKickapoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor, now 25, was pushed from\nbehind and fell into a muddy pit, face-first. According to one classmate, it\nwas more akin to a \u201cmosh pit\u201d and was clearly dangerous. Taylor herself spoke\nabout the incident at the 2017 deposition, saying: “I started screaming,\ntelling them to get off because I was feeling really crushed. And I felt like\neverything was kind of just getting squished, \u201cThen I felt my shoulder pop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dragged away by a student who seen\nher fall unconscious during the incident, Taylor suffered significant injury\ndue to the incident. The suit, brought against Springfield Public Schools and\nLebanon Superintendent, David Schmitz \u2013 the principal of the school in 2010 \u2013\nalleges that the muddy pit was nowhere near supervised enough, and that emergency\naid was not delivered in a quick enough fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the district itself denies\nknowing any existence of the muddy pit event, the fact that sloganized t-shirts\nreading \u201cThere will be mud,\u201d makes it hard to know what to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The injuries suffered included a\nfractured collarbone as well as heart and chest tissue injuries. Indeed, the\nincident meant that Taylor suffered from four strokes, as well as permanent\nbrain damage, severe dementia and even temporary total blindness that left her\nblind for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost two months of missed term time\nwas the result, and Taylor was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress\ndisorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the full settlement details\nwere not made clear in the settlement, Taylor had sought help with medical\nexpenses and also an unspecified amount. When asked about the incident, Schmitz\nsaid: “I always wish every student the best, regardless of the\ncircumstances, but I don’t want to comment beyond that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chief of Communications for the\ndistrict, Stephen Hall, said: \u201cThe safety and well-being of our students will\nalways be our first priority. We are committed to their best interests \u2014\nalways,” he said. “Any time one of our students is injured, our\nhearts go out to them, we seek opportunities to provide support, and we work to\nprevent future injuries from occurring. We are pleased that this case has been\nresolved and our very best wishes go with Megan as she moves forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of the odder lawsuits we\u2019ve seen in the Springfield, Missouri area, the \u2018mud put\u2019 injury lawsuit has finally come to an end. This lawsuit involved Springfield Public Schools and Kickapoo High School. While the Springfield Public Schools group denies any wrongdoing, they have agreed to pay a sum of $423,106 to settle a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-negligence","category-8-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.majorinjurylaw.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}