Clifford Law Offices Files lawsuit Against Downers Grove North High in Death of High Schooler
Press Release, 06/05/2003Clifford Law Offices will file a lawsuit today (Tuesday, June 3) in DuPage County Circuit Court in the death of a 15-year-old boy who died following an improperly supervised physical education activity at Downers Grove North High School last month.
William Pennington, Jr., a freshman, was participating in the school’s "Wellness Day" May 1. High school employees set up an obstacle course that included an inflatable slide. The teenager fell 12 feet on his head on mats that were insufficiently padded according to the warnings on the mats themselves, an investigation by Clifford Law Offices discovered. Pennington died four days later.
Clifford Law Offices also intends to file today an emergency motion for a protective order asking the court to preserve all of the student health records and visits to the nurse’s office to investigate previous reported injuries on that same equipment that day.
An inspection last month of the written warnings on the mats by Jeffrey Kroll, partner at Clifford Law Offices, clearly indicated that the padding was inadequate and improper when used for such an exercise.
