By Chloe Scheller
After her son received a concussion in gym class in mid-January last year and again in August, a woman in Pittsburgh is suing the school district for not providing her son with the accommodations suggested by a UPMC Sports Medicine Program doctor.
The suggestions included a smaller school workload, a quiet place for testing and the ability to rest during class or at the school’s nurse’s office in the event of a headache.
Both the mother and her child have requested to remain unidentified in order to protect themselves from retaliation.
The lawsuit alleges that the New Brighton Area Middle School failed to accommodate, even though federal law requires them to do so in the event of a brain injury. The 14-year old student is now receiving homebound education, which means that a teacher must spend at least five hours per week teaching the student at home.
“They knew he was going on homebound but they didn’t send a teacher to teach him for the first month and a half of school,” the student’s mother told Pittsburgh Action News 4. She also told reporters that the school district sent a letter to their home threatening to file truancy charges against her.
“We believe the law requires the district to accommodate our client based on the advice of his doctors, and they have refused to do so completely,” Justin Steele, the attorney representing the student and his mother, told the media.
Brenda Eagan Brown, a brain injury expert at the Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania, advised Pittsburgh Action News 4 that the impact of concussions is not well understood by most school districts. “Many times what we hear in our program is, ‘He looks fine, what do you mean he has a brain injury?’ Or, ‘She’s faking it to get out of school work,'” Brown said. “There’s some depression that can set in, anxiety. We see their friendships start to dissipate and this is very concerning for us.”
According to Hal Waldman and Associates, a Pittsburgh law firm that specializes in injury cases, victims of serious head injuries can have symptoms and side effects for many years after the incident occurs. The symptoms can range from headaches to depression, and from memory loss to nausea and dizziness. The traumatic head injury can very often lead to problems that could last a lifetime if not given careful treatment and professional care.
New Brighton Area Middle School declined to comment.
