School board, teachers given extension in field trip lawsuit

The Craven County Board of Education and two former Havelock High School teachers have been granted an extension to respond to claims of “negligence” in a lawsuit filed May 6.

The extension came from the Clerk of Superior Court concerning a lawsuit on behalf of a former Havelock High School student who suffered a brain injury after nearly drowning during a school-sponsored field trip.

The Board of Education has until Aug. 6 to address allegations included in the complaint filed by Kellum Law Firm in New Bern on behalf of the victim, Glenn Courtney Poole Jr., according to court documents.

The lawsuit asks for at least $250,000 for damages from the School Board and the teachers, along with a trial by jury and the recovery of attorney fees. The monetary amount is requested for the recovery of damages including “medical expenses, pain and suffering, permanent impairment, loss of use of the plaintiff’s body, loss of earning capacity and loss of income,” the claim states.

The board filed and received a 30-day extension to provide a response to the complaint and an additional 15 days to respond to interrogatories – a part of the discovery process of a lawsuit in which information is requested and exchanged – and a request for the production of documents requested.

On June 29, the last motion made by the board’s attorney, Deborah R. Stagner of Tharrington Smith, LLP of Raleigh, for additional time to investigate and respond to the complaint was also approved.

The teachers included in the claim — Meribeth Praml and Robert Thomas — were also granted extensions.

A senior at the time, Poole was among a group of 46 students from four classes who visited the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and Fort Macon State Park, where the near-drowning occurred on Sept. 27, 2012.

The group, which included the two teachers who both resigned a week after the incident, had gone to the main bathhouse beach at Fort Macon, where there were no lifeguards on duty. Poole apparently got caught in a rip current and had to be rescued, according to a statement issued at the time by the school system.

While the district has been tight-lipped since the incident, the lawsuit claims Poole had tried to help a classmate who had been struck by a wave, knocked into the water and was being pulled away by the current.

As the current began pulling the student, identified as Martin Rosa in the claim, Rosa yelled for help. Poole tried to save his classmate from drowning but was unable to get back into a position where he could recover from danger, according the complaint.

While students began to yell and scream for help, Praml continued to read a book assuming the students were yelling because they had seen porpoises in the water, the claim states.

“Other than scream, the defendant Meribeth Praml did not do anything to aid or assist the plaintiff,” the document reads.

It was two bystanders who entered the water in an effort to rescue Poole, while another took a kayak to use in a rescue effort, according to the complaint. Two students on the field trip, Abby Clark and Will Blythe, also participated in the rescue.

Eventually, Poole was rescued after being face down in the ocean for a period of time, but he was not breathing as he was brought ashore. Thomas and Blythe administered CPR until rescue crews arrived.

The suit states that personnel from Atlantic Beach EMS performed CPR and took him to Carteret General Hospital and finally to Vidant Medical Center, where he was found to have suffered a hypoxic-ischemic brain injury due to the near-drowning, the suit claims.

Because of the sustained brain injury and loss of short-term memory, Poole was appointed a guardian ad litem to assist him in the prosecution of the case; he is listed as incompetent due to the injury, the complaint states.

The school-sponsored event did not follow school district policies for field trips, according to the claim. The request for the field trip presented for approval stated there would be 40 students and two chaperones on the trip. The ratio of students to teachers was not the school district-required one teacher per 15 students, the lawsuit states.

In addition, the consent form for Poole to attend was not signed by either of his parents, according to the lawsuit. However, Poole was allowed to travel with 45 other students and two teachers on the trip, according to the claim.

The field trip, approved by school principal Jeff Murphy on Sept. 14, 2012, should not have happened, the suit asserts, as it failed to contain a detailed list of all activities.

According to the school district’s own released statement at the time, “the parent permission slips did not indicate that swimming or entering the water would be part of the day’s activities.”

Since the suit has been filed, Board of Education members have revisited their field trip regulations.

The policy, reviewed in January 2009, states, “Swimming is not permissible without direct Board approval and without a certified lifeguard present during the activity. In the event of approval, the Parent Field Trip Consent Form and the Request for Field Trip Form will include ‘swimming’ as an activity on the itinerary. The principal shall require a safety plan for supervision during all water activities.”

Crystal Garrett is a reporter for the Sun Journal.