Two Texas parents have filed a lawsuit after their sixth-grade daughter returned from a field trip with severe rope burns around her neck.
Dallas News reports that the 12-year-old was playing on a swing while on a field trip at a ranch. The unidentified girl, who was only one of two Black students on the field trip, said she felt someone approach her from behind and place a rope around her neck before pushing her down. She suspects the culprits were three White boys who have bullied her in the past, though no eyewitnesses have come forward.
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“It looked like somebody had ripped her neck apart and stitched it back together,” her mother, Sandy Rougely told Dallas News.
The family is suing Live Oak Classical School as well as the owner of the ranch for $3 million. The lawsuit hopes to both compensate the victims as well as discourage any similar cases like this in the future.
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The school has refuted the bullying claims and says that the incident was an “unfortunate accident.”
“We all know anybody can allege anything in a lawsuit,” the school’s attorney, David Deaconson, said in a statement. ”We also need to keep in mind we’ve got 12-year-old kids involved, and adults need to react in a way that doesn’t put the 12-year-olds’ safety at risk, which many of them already have.”