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Teen sues high school after science teacher brought swords to class and instructed students to fight
A New Mexico school, its vice principal, and a teacher there are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that the teacher brought real swords into her science classroom and instructed students to fight with them, causing one student to become badly injured.
The lawsuit is being brought on behalf of the student, identified only as N.S., by her grandparents and permanent guardians, Arnold and Judy Gachupin. According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 23, N.S. was a 16-year-old sophomore at Albuquerque Public Schools’ Volcano Vista High School at the time.
The incident began when the teacher, identified in the lawsuit as Loviata Mitchell, brought two swords into the school on May 2, 2022. She allegedly hid them from students, security staff and other school personnel, until the class that N.S. was in. At that point, Mitchell allegedly announced that she had “surprise” for her students, according to the lawsuit, and revealed the two swords. One was a katana-style sword with a “long, curved blade and sharp edge,” according to the lawsuit, and the second was a rapier-style sword. Mitchell, according to the lawsuit, told the students the swords were props.
After bringing out the weapons, Mitchell allegedly instructed the students to rearrange their desks and create a space in the middle of the classroom for pairs of students to fight. The fights were timed with a two-minute timer displayed on the classroom’s projector, and filmed and photographed by other students, including N.S. Video footage of the fights was included in the lawsuit, and “shows Ms. Mitchell looking on approvingly.” Mitchell had no certifications or experience in sword-fighting, the lawsuit said.
Lawsuit photo
N.S. was then called to fight, but shortly after the bout began, she was struck across her right forearm, wrist and hand by the katana-style sword, causing a “large and deep laceration” that began to bleed profusely, according to the lawsuit. Mitchell allegedly stated “I’m in trouble!” after the injury occurred, and ordered students to delete video recordings of the fights and to not tell anyone about them.
Mitchell also allegedly delayed calling for help. N.S.’s grandfather was contacted about 20 minutes after the injury was sustained, and because Mitchell could not figure out how to dial the nurse’s office, it wasn’t until N.S. “began to feel nauseous and weak from blood loss” that another student left the room to get medical assistance. About 30 minutes after N.S. was cut, 911 was called and N.S. was brought to the hospital.
The lawsuit described the injury as a “gaping wound” that resulted in injuries to nerves and tendons in N.S.’s dominant hand. The nerves and tendons remain damaged, despite surgery on the area, and “cause ongoing daily pain,” according to the lawsuit, and make it difficult or impossible for N.S. to perform “many basic daily tasks” including preparing food, fastening buttons and zippers, and more. She continues to undergo occupational and physical therapy, the lawsuit said, but her dominant hand remains significantly weaker than her non-dominant hand. The teen was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit said.
Lawsuit photo
“Because of the injury, N.S. has become withdrawn and depressed; as a result, the Plaintiffs no longer enjoy as close of a relationship with their granddaughter,” the lawsuit said. “N.S. is not the same emotionally as she was before the injury, and this has affected the Plaintiffs’ relationship with N.S., their quality of life, and their home environment.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the school attempted to cover up the incident, with the assistant principal, identified as Manuel Alzaga, filling out an official accident report that described the swords a prop brought in to teach a students a lesson “on metal and melding.” The incident report noted that N.S. had been injured, but said that the injury did not violate school rules, despite the school and state both prohibiting deadly weapons, which would include swords, from being brought onto school campuses. The lawsuit argued that this was an attempt to deflect liability away from Mitchell.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees, costs and other relief. The school told CBS News that it could not comment on the allegations, citing a policy against commenting on pending litigation.
According to the lawsuit, Mitchell is no longer a teacher at Volcano Vista High School.
Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves made his professional auto racing debut on Saturday at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“The Matrix” star, who qualified 31st out of 35 cars, ran as high as 21st before a single-car crash a little more than halfway through the 45-minute race briefly stopped him in his tracks.
Darron Cummings / AP
The 60-year-old spun into the grass without a collision on the exit of Turn 9 when he had about 21 minutes of racing left. He re-entered the course and continued driving, signaling he was uninjured.
Reeves finished 25th.
The actor is competing at Indianapolis in the Toyota GR Cup, a Toyota spec-racing series and a support series for this weekend’s Indy 8 Hour sports car event. He has a second race on Sunday.
Darron Cummings / AP
He is driving the No. 92 BRZRKR car, which is promoting his graphic novel “The Book of Elsewhere.” He is teammates with Cody Jones from “Dude Perfect.”
Reeves has previous racing experience as a former participant in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in the celebrity race. Reeves won the event in 2009.
A passenger successfully landed a small plane on Friday after the pilot had a medical emergency, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 was traveling from Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada to Monterey Regional Airport in California, with a pilot and one other person on board, the FAA said.
The pilot suffered an unspecified medical emergency while flying, the FAA said, forcing the passenger to take the controls and make an emergency landing at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California.
The Kern Fire Department told CBS News affiliate KBAX that firefighters were called to a report of a medical emergency on the plane. The pilot was reported to be “incapacitated,” the fire department said. Firefighters saw the plane approach and land safely, then “chased” the plane down the runway in emergency vehicles to meet it.
The FAA did not release the passenger or pilot’s identities nor give an update on the pilot’s condition. The pilot was taken to an area hospital by ambulance. The passenger did not report any injuries.
The FAA and the National Transportation Security Board will investigate the incident, the FAA said.
Congolese authorities began vaccination against mpox on Saturday, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.
The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.
Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases. Officials in Congo previously told CBS News that they’ve struggled to diagnose patients and provide basic care in the vast country of 100 million people, where a fragile, under-resourced healthcare system is also burdened by the stigma associated with the virus.
Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.
“Strategies have been put in place by the services in order to vaccinate all targeted personnel,” Muboyayi ChikayaI, the minister’s chief of staff, said as he kicked off the vaccination.
Moses Sawasawa / AP
At least 3 million doses of the vaccine approved for use in children are expected from Japan in the coming days, Kamba said.
Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa before the disease prompted the 2022 global outbreak that saw wealthy countries quickly respond with vaccines from their stockpiles while Africa received only a few doses despite pleas from its governments.
However, unlike the global outbreak in 2022 that was overwhelmingly focused on gay and bisexual men, mpox in Africa is now being spread via sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of WHO’s mpox emergency committee, recently told reporters.
More than 34,000 suspected cases and 866 deaths from the virus have been recorded across 16 countries in Africa this year. That is a 200% increase compared to the same period last year, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
A lack of diagnostic materials and basic medicines to treat the virus, which can improve survival rates, have also hampered efforts to contain the outbreak, and access to vaccines remains a challenge.
Moses Sawasawa / AP
The continent of 1.4 billion people has only secured a commitment for 5.9 million doses of mpox vaccines, expected to be available from October through December, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa CDC, told reporters last week. Congo remains a priority, he said.
At the vaccination drive in Goma, Dr Jean Bruno Kibunda, the WHO representative, warned that North Kivu province is at a risk of a major outbreak due to the “promiscuity observed in the camps” for displaced people, as one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis caused by armed violence unfolds there.
The news of the vaccination program brought relief to many in Congo, especially in hospitals that had been struggling to manage the outbreak. Doctors with several charities working in the country have told CBS News they’re overstretched and short on supplies, even having to use tents and mattresses on the floor of makeshift isolation wards to treat a constant influx of patients.
“If everyone could be vaccinated, it would be even better to stop the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Musole Mulambamunva Robert, the medical director of Kavumu Hospital, one of the mpox treatment centers in eastern Congo.
Eastern Congo has been beset by conflict for years, with more than 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich area near the border with Rwanda. Some have been accused of carrying out mass killings.
