LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Officials at four JCPS schools are being sued after six individual students, staff and faculty claimed the schools were unsafe and hostile environments.
Jeffersontown, Fern Creek and Seneca High School were all listed in the lawsuit, as well as Coleridge-Taylor Montessori Elementary. The lawsuit claims there were several assaults by students on both students and staff, and in most cases, the student returned to the school within the academic year.
All six of the complaints said that staff and students in JCPS should be entitled to safe working and learning environments and are seeking damages from school officials. The six complaints are listed below.
Jeffersontown High School
Sharita Bransford, a counselor at Jeffersontown High School, said she had broken up a fight between students when one student jumped on her back, hitting her head, neck and back.
“I just kept thinking ‘when is somebody going to come help me?’” Bransford said on Thursday.
Bransford said she was concussed and suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the fight.
“This has been probably one of the hardest things I've ever experienced,” Bransford said in tears.
Both students were suspended to the board for six days, and one student was sent to an alternative school, but Bransford said the student that jumped on her back and hit her has already returned to school.
“I don't know if I can do my job anymore.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that when Bransford requested a video of the assault through an open records request, JCPS refused.
In the lawsuit, the Air Force veteran said that she loves her job, but requests that she be entitled to work in a safe environment.
Fern Creek High School
Two staff members at Fern Creek High School are suing the school, claiming it is an unsafe work environment.
Kelly Hinkle, and in-school security monitor, and Tamera Collins, an attendance clerk, both claimed to have PTSD after incidents at the school -- including the 2014 shooting on the premises.
“The fact that a student came into my school and shot into a hallway, 300 other students, blindly, and shot an innocent student whose life will never be the same, and he didn't get expelled for that, that is a problem,” Hinkle said.
In the lawsuit, Hinkle said she heads the security team at the school and is often the first to respond to fights between students and students and faculty.
Hinkle claimed that students who are suspended or sent to an alternative school due to fights or weapons often return to the school. The security monitor also said students with previous weapon violations are sent to Fern Creek as well, including the student who shot another student in 2014.
Tamera Collins said she was the first person to see the shooter in 2014 and suffers PTSD every time she finds out a weapon was confiscated. Collins said a safety plan was presented to the JCPS Board, but the plan was denied.
“We don't have any more secure doors, no alarms, no metal detectors and why is that? Why is it that we are expendable as people?” Collins argued, stating in the lawsuit, she ‘fears that she will be shot and killed on a daily basis.'
Both Hinkle and Collins claim JCPS does not try to provide a safe environment.
Seneca High School
A student at Seneca High School claimed another student at the school has continued to put her in dangerous situations, and the school has done little to help her.
The student claimed she was wrongfully suspended by defending herself against another student who hit her, and that Seneca officials knew the other student had a history of assault.
After the suspension, the student said her bully has continued to harass her, encouraging friends to stalk and bully her and taunt her at school and on the bus.
The lawsuit also said the student was previously told she would be protected from the bully and other students before she returned to school, but nothing has been done to stop the harassment.
Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School
Two special education teachers are suing officials at Coleridge-Taylor after they said they were denied safe crisis management training and were not given aides, causing abuse and PTSD.
Jane Bragg said in the lawsuit that an assistant principal at the school intentionally denied placing her in a training class and Principal Marcia Carmichael-Murphy harassed her, forcing her to resign.
“I've never been so maliciously attacked in my integrity and dignity,” Bragg explained.
Dana Vinson also claimed she was intentionally denied safe crisis management training and had no aides in her classroom for two years, causing issues in the classroom.
In the lawsuit, Vinson said she was assaulted by a student multiple times and given no help despite requesting help. Vinson claimed the officials retaliated against her for voicing her complaint that her contract had been violated because she did not have assistants.
When asked for a response, JCPS said the district cannot comment on pending litigation.