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Matthew Walls, then a 13-year-old seventh-grader, will receive $167,000 in a special needs trust, according to the Sept. 9 settlement agreement. Walls suffered substantial mental impairment and was diagnosed as educationally handicapped as a result of the injury, according to the lawsuit.
His mother, Donna Walls, will receive $20,000 for economic losses as a result of injuries sustained by her son. The rest of the money will pay for court fees, lawyer's fees and medical bills.
This is the district's second settlement in two years stemming from incidents involving middle school boys punching each other in the chest. The father of Francisco Belman, an eighth-grader at H.E. McCracken Middle School who died after two other students hit him in the chest repeatedly in a school bathroom in 2002, received a $200,000 settlement in 2007.
The Walls suit claimed negligence by the school district led to the serious injury of Matthew, who was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and placed on life support July 24, 2006, after he was hurt while playing a punching game with another student.
Among the claims in the lawsuit:
• District officials allowed Matthew to be in the company of the student who punched him, despite the student's long history of behavior violations and prior assaults, including one as recent as a week before the incident.
• The district did not have a properly trained teacher supervising Matthew and his assailant and did not train school staff to provide proper medical care, including recognizing the extent of his injuries.
• The district hid or removed information and evidence related to the investigation of the assault and created administrative hurdles for investigators. Janitors cleaned Matthew's blood from the floor before Beaufort County Sheriff's Office investigators arrived.
The school district denies liability for Matthew's injuries in the settlement agreement and denied most of the allegations listed in the lawsuit.
Fred Washington Jr., chairman of the Board of Education, said he is satisfied with the agreement reached last month.
"It seemed to be reasonable," he said. Washington predicted the district would have spent more than $440,000 in legal fees if the suit had gone to trial.
Superintendent Valerie Truesdale, who declined comment for this article, recently commented on school safety in an article published in The Beaufort Gazette's Neighbors section.
"Student safety is one of the highest priorities in Beaufort County schools," she said. "Each day, 19,585 children are entrusted in our care. We take this awesome responsibility of their well-being very, very seriously."
The S.C. School Board's Insurance Trust paid the county school district's $425,000 portion of the total settlement, said Jennifer Staton, the district's risk manager. The state Department of Education and state Board of Education also were named in the suit, and their insurance paid the remaining $15,000, Staton said.
Donna and Matthew Walls declined comment this week through their lawyer, J. Olin McDougall of Beaufort.
McDougall said he and the Walls are satisfied with the agreement but believes his client would have received more money if the defendants were not protected by the S.C. Tort Claims Act. The law caps the amount of damages government entities must pay for claims.
"(Matthew) has kept a very positive attitude to have undergone and sustained the injury and the treatment that he has," McDougall said.
McDougall's records contain more than 90 Sheriff's Office reports documenting incidents of assault and battery at Robert Smalls Middle School between January 2001 and July 2006. Some of the reports document fights between students and others detail assaults on school employees.
The Injury
On July 24, 2006, Matthew and another student were playing the "open chest game" on their way to the cafeteria for a "silent lunch" detention at Robert Smalls Middle School, according to a report from the Sheriff's Office.
Students told police the game was popular at the school and involves two people punching each other in the chest. A school district review of the incident said the game requires participants to cross their arms over their chest. When one student drops his arms, the other can hit him in the "open" chest.
Matthew and the other student each hit the other in the chest at least once during the game, according to the report.
When Matthew turned to walk away, the 13-year-old boy he was playing with pushed him, causing Matthew to stumble across the hallway, strike his head against the wall and fall to the floor, according to the report. He hit his forehead on the floor, the report said.
The teacher escorting students to the lunch detention saw Matthew fall. Students thought Matthew was playing a joke until he began convulsing and blood spilled from his forehead, according to the report.
Staff members provided CPR and the school nurse was called to help Matthew until Beaufort County EMS arrived. Matthew was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina. He was listed in critical condition and placed on life support.
The student who punched Matthew admitted to investigators that he hit and pushed him as part of a game but said he never meant to cause serious injuries. The student, whose name wasn't released by authorities because he is a minor, was charged in Family Court with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
Several days after Matthew's injury, other students provided conflicting information about how and where Matthew hit the wall. Some of those students said they heard Matthew say he couldn't play the open chest game because he has asthma and that the student who pushed him meant to hurt him, according to the report.
The Belman Case
Matthew is not the first student to be seriously injured after being hit in the chest at a county school.
Francisco Belman, an eighth-grader at H.E. McCracken Middle School, died after two other students hit him in the chest repeatedly in a school bathroom in 2002. The incident was part of an initiation into the "Latin Mafia" group, authorities said.
The school nurse at McCracken Middle School when Belman was hit was also the nurse at Robert Smalls Middle School when Matthew was injured, McDougall said.
In 2004, Belman's father filed a lawsuit seeking $2 million in damages from seven sets of defendants ranging from school and government officials to the parents of the two teens who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of his son. He received a $200,000 settlement from the county school district and other local government entities in 2007.
