A jury in Texas has awarded $68,000 in damages to the family of a 12-year-old girl who suffered rope burns to her neck during a school field trip in 2016.
The Travis County jury in Austin awarded the damages in the case against Live Oak Classical School. The girl's attorney, Levi McCathern, alleged that classmates tied a rope around her neck and pulled her to the ground during a field trip in Blanco County in the Texas Hill Country. The attorney says the girl had long been the victim of bullying.
McCathern says the girl was one of two black students at the Waco school. He had asked for $12 million in actual and punitive damages but still called the verdict a victory.
School attorney Dave Deaconson, who said the injury was an accident, also claimed victory.
