The former Schuyler Avenue Elementary School
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WILKES-BARRE — A Kingston mother filed a civil lawsuit in Luzerne County Court for injuries her daughter sustained when she fell down stairs inside the now closed Schuyler Elementary School in the Wyoming Valley West School District.
The two-count civil suit against the school district says the girl, then 6, was excused from a classroom to use a restroom located in the basement of the building on Dec. 14, 2021.
After the girl was gone from the classroom for nearly 30 minutes, another student found her lying unconscious and in a pool of blood at the base of the stairs leading to the basement, according to the lawsuit filed by Attorney Robert J. Moran, of The Moran Law Group, LLC, in Scranton.
The girl was initially transported to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center and airlifted to the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
According to the suit, the girl sustained a traumatic brain injury, concussion, multiple facial bone fractures, fractures to both left and right wrists, a laceration of the liver and a spinal injury.
The girl underwent surgery and continues physical therapy, the suit says.
The suit alleges the school district was aware and failed to repair the dilapidated marble stairs, allowed the girl to go to the restroom unsupervised and failing to react when the girl did not return to the classroom within a reasonable time.
The suit alleges two counts of negligence and seeks in excess of $50,000 on each count.
Attorney Raymond P. Wendolowski, solicitor for the school district, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The school district permanently closed Schuyler Elementary on Schuyler Avenue, Kingston, following the 2021-2022 school year.