The Sioux City (Iowa) school district has agreed to pay $262,500 to the mother who said her son was injured after staff members failed to protect him from another student's bullying when he was in kindergarten.
The Sioux City Journal reports that school board approved a settlement with Amber Greene. She had contended in a lawsuit that physical contact between her son and another student on April 1, 2011, led to her son's needing a second cornea transplant in his eye.
The lawsuit states that Greene was concerned that the other student had been picking on her son, who was in kindergarten at Riverside Elementary School at the time. After her son had a cornea transplant in his left eye, she asked school staff to make sure that when her son returned to school, he not be anywhere near the student who had been picking on him.
When Greene's son returned to school, he had a doctor's order to have indoor recess only, but the school allowed him to go outside for recess on his first day back. When the children lined up to go back inside, the lawsuit alleged, Greene's son was hit in the left eye by the same student Greene had earlier complained about.
As a result, Greene's son needed a second cornea transplant and has significant vision loss in the eye, according to the lawsuit.
Under terms of the settlement, the district does not admit to any liability. The payment to Greene is covered by the district's insurance carrier, officials say.
