DEATH WON'T COST DISTRICT JURY REJECTS DAMAGES FOR SCHOOL-FIGHT VICTIM'S MOM.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer PALMDALE - A Van Nuys jury decided Wednesday that the Palmdale School District The Palmdale School District is a school district that serves a major part of the city of Palmdale, California (USA). The Palmdale School District was first formed in 1888. Approximately 28,000 students are enrolled in the Palmdale School District. does not owe any money to the mother of a Juniper Intermediate School student killed three years ago in an after-school fistfight. After about four hours of deliberation deliberation n. the act of considering, discussing, and, hopefully, reaching a conclusion, such as a jury's discussions, voting and decision-making. DELIBERATION, contracts, crimes. , the jury voted 11-1 to declare school officials were negligent in supervising students, but in a 9-3 verdict said the negligence didn't lead to the death of 13-year-old Stephan Corson, officials said. ``I felt we didn't owe any money,'' Palmdale district Superintendent District Superintendent may be:
Mary Corson filed the lawsuit after school officials rejected her $10 million wrongful-death claim. Her attorney, Melanie Lomax Melanie E. Lomax (April 12, 1950 – September 10, 2006), was a civil rights lawyer and former head of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Lomax was the daughter of Lucius Lomax, an attorney, and Almena Davis Lomax, a civil rights activist and publisher of the , said Mary Corson plans to appeal. ``The jury verdict seems to be totally illogical,'' Lomax said. ``On the one hand, the jury found by a vote of 11-1 that the school district was negligent and on the other hand they failed to connect the dots and determine that was a contributing cause to this boy being killed. ``The whole issue was failure to supervise a large group of students immediately outside a classroom door.'' Lomax told the jury that a teacher failed to prevent a classroom dispute between Stephan and a 14-year-old classmate from escalating into a fistfight in the schoolyard. The teacher let her students misbehave mis·be·have v. mis·be·haved, mis·be·hav·ing, mis·be·haves v.intr. To behave badly. v.tr. in class and stayed inside the room when the boys began fighting after dismissal, Lomax said. Palmdale School District attorney Martin Carpenter maintained that the teacher was in control of her class, that Stephan had punched the other boy when he came out of the classroom, and that within seconds an instructional aide stepped between the boys but couldn't prevent the last two punches. The boys had exchanged words in class - after the other boy had been ordered to pick up spitballs - but it was not a loud argument and the teacher was not aware of it, Carpenter said. After the aide intervened, Stephan pushed past her to punch the other boy, who immediately hit back and Stephan fell to the pavement, Carpenter said. Stephan died from damage to his spinal cord spinal cord, the part of the nervous system occupying the hollow interior (vertebral canal) of the series of vertebrae that form the spinal column, technically known as the vertebral column. caused either by a punch thrown by the classmate or from hitting the ground with his chin, coroner's officials said. Prosecutors declined to prosecute the boy, saying he acted in self-defense (Law) in protection of self, - it being permitted in law to a party on whom a grave wrong is attempted to resist the wrong, even at the peril of the life of the assailiant. - Wharton. See also: Self-defense after Stephan threw the first punch. Stephan had started class at Juniper less than a month before he was killed. His mother, a Kaiser Permanent medical records transcriber, told the jury she had moved to Palmdale from the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. to afford a house, after promising her son a back yard and a dog. School officials said the situation was a tragedy and that they are sorry for Mary Corson's loss. ``Whether people believe it or not, we do care,'' Smith said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) CORSON |
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