One Freshwater Suit Settled (See addendum at the end of the post)

Published reports this morning (see also here and here) says that the federal lawsuit brought by the parents of the boy who was burned with a Tesla coil in an 8th grade science class in the Mt. Vernon City Schools has been settled. According to the report

The district’s insurer has agreed to pay $5,500 to the family of the Mount Vernon Middle School eighth grader who alleged that his teacher, John Freshwater, burned a cross-shaped mark into his arm with a BD-10A Electrostatic Generator, according to a news release from the board of education. The company will also pick up the tab on the boy’s legal fees, which came in at $115,500.

This settlement does not affect the on-going administrative hearing on the termination of employment of the teacher, John Freshwater. That hearing has been on hiatus since May, and is due to resume sometime this fall. It is hanging fire waiting for the Ohio Supreme Court to decide whether to issue a writ of mandamus that would compel members of the Board of Education to testify in the hearing. It also does not affect the federal suit that Freshwater brought against the Board, several administrators, and some John and Jane Does over the summer.

The settlement has not yet been approved by the court, but no one I talked with anticipates a problem with that.

Addendum: I should mention that Freshwater is also a defendant in the Dennis family’s suit, and he is still a defendant. The settlement involves only the school district defendants.