BLANCO COUNTY, Texas — Jury selection began Tuesday in the case of a Waco girl whose family claims she suffered severe rope burn around her neck during a bullying incident at an overnight field trip.
The girl, who was 12 at the time, attended Live Oak Classical School during the 2016 incident.
The girl's family filed a $3 million lawsuit again the school and the owner of the ranch where the incident happened.
During a court hearing Wednesday, the school's dean, Alisson Buras, testified she did not discipline any students the year the child was a student there despite a language arts teacher reporting the victim had been bullied.
The student's mother said she also sent an email to Buras saying her daughter was being pushed and kicked.
Buras maintained Live Oak does not have a history of bullying despite the reports.
In an email earlier, Bura wrote while there may be some validity to the victim's statement she could not connect with her, citing the child's lack of social skills.
"When I talk to her it's like a tennis match with only one person hitting the ball," Buras wrote.
The girl and other Live Oak sixth-grade students were on an overnight field trip on April 28. According to the Blanco County Sheriff's Office, the children were playing on a swing that hung from a tree. The 12-year-old victim said she was playing with other children at the swing and helped pull on the ropes, investigators said. During an interview with a detective, the victim said she stopped pulling the rope and watched when the rope somehow went around her neck. She said the rope pulled tight and dragged her about an inch causing a burn, investigators said.
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According to investigators, many of the children who witnessed the incident were interviewed and offered different accounts. Some of the children said the rope whipped around the victims' neck, others said she fell toward the swing causing the rope to wrap around her neck.
An attorney for the child's family claimed the incident was a racially motivated attack.
A doctor who was on the trip and tended to the victim’s injury described it as a first-degree friction burn.
An investigation into the incident found no evidence of racially motivated acts toward the girl by anyone at or associated with Live Oak Classical School, officials said.
A statement released Tuesday by the family's attorney said the incident was a result of bullying motivated by the child's economic status.
A statement released by Live Oak Classical School in 2016 said the victim's mother "hired a lawyer who attempted to collect a quick multi-million dollar payment by threatening that he would go to the press and claim the incident was intentional and racially motivated."
The school rejected the attorney’s demand. The school has willingly worked with the Blanco County Sheriff’s Department in their investigation of the incident. Live Oak Classical School stated they will stand by the facts of this independent investigation, and that remains true with today’s release of the completed report. – David Deaconson, spokesperson for Live Oak Classical School.
The 2016 report by the Blanco Sheriff’s Office said the injuries the girl suffered were classified by three different physicians as "minor or superficial rope burn." Also, the victim’s account of the rope pulling tight and her being dragged 1 inch is likely disproved by the evidence, the report said.
The Sheriff’s office said in 2016 it would request that the case be reviewed by a local prosecutor. However, the case was recommended to be closed with no further action.