HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — More questions and outrage are coming from a Tampa family seeking justice after a devastating school bus crash because Florida lawmakers didn't pass a bill that would have required a payout.
"I just want to work so that I’m not in the house all day,” says Marcus Button, who was 16 in 2006 when a Pasco County school bus crashed into the car he was riding in.
“I have multiple traumatic brain injuries, I’m half-blind, I have nerve damage," he explained.
In 2010, his family sued the school district and a jury awarded them more than a million dollars but only have seen a portion of that because of Florida’s sovereign immunity laws. He wants to use the money for programs to build skills to live independently he can't otherwise afford. His injuries leave him with social and developmental difficulties.
"I thought I was in the clear but, you know, they took that right from me,” Button said.
A bill that seemed certain to pass stalled in the Florida legislature that would have required Pasco Schools to pay Button despite the law capping payouts from local governments. At the same time, Robin and Marcus signed an agreement with the district where it agreed it would pay them. The sponsor of the bill, Pensacola Rep. Alex Andrade thought that meant there was no need for the bill, but there still was.
"The bill needed to pass for them to pay out the settlement they agreed to,” Andrade said. “Unfortunately that wasn't brought to my attention until the deadline had already passed."
Ever since, Andrade has started talks with the district directly and claims Pasco Schools now says it did have an insurance policy in place at the time of the crash that could pay out up to $800,000, something the Buttons and their lawyers never knew.
"I just found out about this insurance. I'm infuriated about that,” said Robin Button, Marcus' mom.
The bill and the facts of the case were reviewed by a legislative attorney, whose report said the school district was only self-insured at the time and was not eligible to be used in these cases.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to Pasco Schools to confirm the additional policy exists but has not heard back yet. Rep. Andrade says if he can't get help for the Buttons this year, he will try to pass the bill again next session.