Attorney Bompiani Comments on Tragic Case Against School
Posted By Bompiani Law Group LLC on Jan 30, 2010 12:52pm PST
The parents of a Valley High School student who died in a
car wreck have sued the New Kensington-Arnold School District, alleging that school officials did nothing to stop their son from leaving early on the day of the crash.
Scott and Brenda Grau filed a federal
lawsuit asking for unspecified damages for the district's alleged failure to enforce rules and prevent their 17-year-old son, Colin, from walking out of school.
Colin Grau died when the car he was in collided with a pickup truck near Memorial Park on Route 366 on Jan. 21, 2009.
The driver of the car, Nicholas Masi, 18, and the driver of the truck, Paul Luzik, 41, were injured in the crash.
Classmates told Channel 4 Action News at the time of the crash that Grau and Masi left school early because their last class of the day was a study hall.
Attorney Charles Steele says Colin Grau could be alive today if the district had enforced a campus policy which forbade students to leave during the school day without permission.
The district was advised by legal counsel not to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.
Channel 4 Action News asked
Anthony Bompiani, an independent attorney, about a possible defense.
"The first thing that came to my mind is governmental immunity, and what that is is a law that protects the school district and other governmental entities from liability,"
Bompiani said. "There are exceptions to the governmental immunity general rule."
Grau's family attorney says the federal lawsuit will prove what's called a state-created danger -- a school next to a highway that some consider to be dangerous with, according to the lawsuit, an estimated 88 vehicle collisions along Route 366 in a four-year period.
There is specific mention in the lawsuit of the district not providing busing next to the so-called "dangerous highway." Busing was started eight months after Colin Grau's death.
Valley Principal Jon Banko, Vice Principal Jeffrey Thimons and school directors are named in the lawsuit, which does not specify any damages being sought.
The Grau family attorney says the lawsuit isn't just about money, but also justice for their son and prevention of another student's death.