Lawsuit filed against school administrators after student stabbed in face

By Joshua Skinner

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    HENRY COUNTY, Georgia (WANF) — It was March 15 when Ashley Wilson got a call from emergency responders regarding her daughter.

“He was asking me what hospital choice I wanted for my daughter,” Wilson said.

Stunned and confused, Wilson didn’t know how to respond. Her daughter was a student at Ola Middle School in McDonough. What could have happened? She agreed to meet the ambulance at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“I’m already a nervous wreck and praying for my child, and I don’t even know what I am praying for,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s daughter was involved in an altercation at Ola Middle School, which has been described as a fight, but Wilson describes as an attack. Cell phone video of the altercation shows students cheering as two people fight on the ground. Wilson’s daughter, who is not named because she is a minor, was stabbed and cut numerous times in the face, head, neck, and back.

“When they opened the doors, I couldn’t even recognize my kid,” Wilson said. “Her blond hair was red, the clothes she went to school in were not on her, she was covered in bandages.”

On Wednesday, exactly eight months later, Wilson filed a lawsuit in Henry County against Ola’s principal and three other administrators.

“There were things going on at the school that were not being handled,” she said.

The lawsuit alleges that police at Ola notified administrators about the student having a knife on two separate occasions on March 14 and March 15.

“The weapon should have been confiscated, an investigation should have been conducted, and the student should have been removed from the premises,” said Adam Princenthal, a Sandy Springs attorney representing Wilson.

Henry County Schools declined to comment for this story, saying they do not comment on active legal matters.

Princenthal believes they know what the defense will argue.

“We expect that the defense of the lawsuit will be based on sovereign immunity,” he said.

Sovereign immunity usually protects governments from legal action, but there are exceptions, and it’s those exceptions that could make or break Wilson’s case.

It’s a thorny issue, and one Smyrna attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez explained is not easy to sidestep.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle from the get-go,” Chadha Jimenez said.

But it is possible if specific criteria are met.

“The key thing that will determine the outcome of this case is knowledge. Did they know, and could they have done something to prevent it?”

Wilson’s lawsuit alleges they did.

“Had the administrators at Ola Middle School done what they were held to do, this could have been prevented,” she said.

Wilson and her daughter moved out of Henry County. She is now homeschooled and in therapy.

“It’s a lot to explain to a kid and to help a kid cope with, and to be their parent and watch them hurt,” Wilson said through tears.

Once served, Ola administrators will have thirty days to respond in what could be a lengthy legal battle.

“You kind of just take it day-by-day,” Wilson said.

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