Miami-Dade Schools Settle Rough-Housing Death Case
MIAMI—The family of a Westview Middle School student, who filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Miami-Dade School Board, will receive a $700,000 settlement.
Pateesha Clinch, 12, was rough-housing with her friends in September 2007 when she fell and hit her head on the side of a portable classroom, according to the Miami Herald. Clinch fell unconscious and went into sudden cardiac arrest.
Though an autopsy later determined that the child had an undetected heart condition, the family maintains that the fall was the cause of the student’s death, and the school was negligent. The lawsuit claims that it took seven minutes for school administrators to dial 911, and that CPR was not administered for at least 15 minutes, reports CBS News.
Additionally, the family’s attorney noted inconsistencies between the initial incident report filed at the scene and a revised copy. The revised version said that two security guards were in the area where the incident occurred; the original report did not mention the guards.
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