An 8-year-old girl was badly scalded while trying to use a water fountain running hot water at her New York City elementary school, a new lawsuit claims.
According to the complaint filed last week by her father, Luis Espinosa, staff members at Dos Amigos Elementary, a public charter school located in upper Manhattan, had connected a water heater to the drinking fountain to “more easily make coffee and other such hot beverages.”
A year ago, on Jan. 10, 2024, the third grader, identified as “L.E.” in the lawsuit, allegedly went to the fountain, located in a high-traffic area of the school next to the gym, and tried to take a sip. The fountain “sprayed scalding hot water on her,” causing the girl to suffer “severe burns on her lips, mouth and face.”
The injuries required medical attention and caused “serious, permanent, disfiguring, and disabling bodily injuries and disability from usual activities,” the lawsuit says.
Staff at the school initially “failed to send L.E. home or even call her parents to let them know what happened,” the complaint alleges. Instead, they “denied the incident in its entirety” and suggested that L.E. had burned herself at home, and “only later admitted their role in it.”
While her parents were meeting with school officials the following day, “Dos Amigos and/or its agents removed the fountain … in an apparent effort to hide the evidence and/or prevent L.E.’s parents from investigating the matter” or to take pictures of the fountain, the complaint claims.
The lawsuit, filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on January 8, names the City of New York, the New York City Department of Education, School In The Square Public Charter School (a nonprofit which operates Dos Amigos and three other public charter schools in New York City), its fundraising arm Friends of the School In the Square, as well as the Good Shepherd School and the Church of the Good Shepherd as defendants.
The charter school leases space from Good Shepherd School, a Catholic school operated by the adjacent church which uses other parts of the building, according to the New York Post, which first reported the lawsuit filing.
School staff “shockingly failed” to turn off the water heater, attach an appropriate child safety lock or mechanism or post any kind of sign warning students that “one of the most heavily-used drinking fountains in the entire school” was hooked up to hot water and could potentially burn them, the complaint says.
The hazardous fountain “lacked a safety valve,” attorney Marc Held, who is representing the family, told the Post.
The lawsuit claims that all of the defendants, individually and jointly, were negligent in the ownership, operation, supervision, inspection and maintenance of the dangerously rigged water fountain, and by allowing it “to remain a hazard” were “setting a trap” for the girl and other unwitting students seeking a cool drink of water.
It also accuses all of the defendants of negligent hiring, training, retention and supervision of the employees involved in the “reckless” and “careless” operation of the fountain, staff whose “unfitness and/or incompetence” was known or should have been known to them.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial to determine compensatory, special and punitive damages, all of which will be greater than the minimum amount monetary damages of $50,000 handled by the New York Supreme Court, in a state which has no statutory caps on damages.
The parents first pursued a claim against the school filed with the city of New York within 90 days of the incident, the lawsuit says, noting that “adjustment or payment thereof has been neglected or refused.”
The May 2024 board meeting minutes of School In The Square noted that Carolyn Disbrow, the nonprofit charter school’s chief operating officer, “informed about a potential lawsuit. The school has put our insurance company on notice and retained counsel.”
Dos Amigos, School In the Square, Good Shepherd School, Church of the Good Shepherd and the New York City Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Atlanta Black Star.
