LOS ANGELES — The Glendale Unified School District faces trial in a lawsuit brought on behalf of an Altadena girl who says she fainted after being required to perform in hot conditions at a campus Christmas holiday recital in 2017.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Cherol Nellon heard arguments May 17 on the district’s motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s case, took the issues under submission and denied the motion on June 26.
The girl, now 15 years old 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 to close.
The school is a K-6 campus and the suit alleges negligent supervision of students.
In her ruling, the judge said both sides presented mostly hearsay deposition evidence to support their arguments.
“Excluding the hearsay evidence, (the district) cannot show how many adults were supervising, the indoor temperature or defendant’s awareness of plaintiff’s health issues,” the judge wrote. “Without this information, the court is unable to ascertain whether defendant acted reasonably.”
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.
“Unfortunately, student accidents can and do happen, but this does not mean that the teaching staff was at fault or that they can be mind readers or fortune tellers in an effort to anticipate the unknown or the unexpected,” the GUSD attorney wrote in her court papers.
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 plaintiffs’ 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 alleges.
Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff fell and landed face first, the suit filed in April 2019 alleges.
“(The girl) felt extremely hot and started overheating,” according to the plaintiff’s attorneys’ court papers. “She felt her face heating up. Her cheeks were getting really hot. Her shoulders and arms were getting hot. She decided to take her sweater off but before she could, she felt herself fainting, everything went black and she fainted.”
The girl eventually regained consciousness and the school nurse and receptionist later told the girl’s mother that no one called 911 because there was no reason to do so, the suit states.
The girl’s mother then turned to the nurse, who also said there was no reason to call 911, according to the claim filed against the district prior to the lawsuit.
“After further discussion with the nurse, it became apparent to (the girl’s mother) that the nurse’s adversarial, unyielding approach was only worsening (the mother’s) already heightened anxiety concerning her daughter’s injuries,” the claim states.
The mother called 911 and was told by paramedics who treated their daughter that she did the right thing by calling them, the claim states.
Unlike during rehearsal, during the actual recital the plaintiff was allowed to sit when she was not singing, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys’ court papers.
Trial of the suit is scheduled Aug. 29.