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The state has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the parents of a girl who was hit in the face playing dodgeball at Noelani Elementary School.
Laura Clark and Richard Greaver Jr. sued the state Department of Education for injuries their daughter Alyssa Greaver suffered in January 2014 while attending Noelani’s Afterschool Plus (A+) Program.
The lawsuit claims that when the ball hit Alyssa, her neck snapped back, and she was knocked off her feet. The parents claim that the school did not notify them of the injury or seek their consent to allow their daughter to “participate in the dangerous activity of dodgeball.”
The parents’ lawyer, Eric Seitz, said younger kids were allowed to play with older, stronger kids. Alyssa was a 9-year-old fourth-grader at the time.
Seitz said the school didn’t think Alyssa’s injury was serious enough to warrant filing an incident report and that the first doctor who examined her didn’t think her injury was serious either. He said Alyssa was later diagnosed with a serious neck injury that required surgery and which permanently reduced her range of movement.
The lawsuit said Alyssa required rehabilitation services as well as medical treatment.
The DOE in August, eight months after Alyssa’s parents filed their lawsuit in state court, let all of its schools know that it supports the Society of Health and Physical Education (SHAPE) America’s position statement that dodgeball is not an appropriate physical education activity.
In a letter sent to all public schools, the department said, “Schools should foster a safe, positive school climate. Dodgeball and other human target activities are inappropriate activities for physical education as well as physical activity opportunities before, during and after school.”
