The insurance carrier for a Connecticut city of Milford paid US$30,000
to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a third-grader who was barred from
school for several days because of Ebola fears.
School officials in
Milford initially told 7-year-old Ikeoluwa Opayemi to stay out of school for
three weeks last October after she attended a family wedding in Nigeria.
The girl showed no
symptoms of Ebola and Nigeria had no known cases of the virus. She was allowed
to return to school after her father filed a federal lawsuit.
The New Haven Register
sought the agreement under the Freedom of Information Act. The newspaper
(http://bit.ly/1L5vBpT) reports the lawsuit was settled on Oct. 30 and the
city's insurance carrier sent a check for US$30,000 to the attorney for the
family.
The New Haven Register
reports:
Under the terms of the
legal settlement, dated Oct. 30, 2014, the girl was allowed to return to
Meadowside Elementary School the next day. In addition, the city’s insurer,
CIRMA, sent $30,000 to Opayemi’s attorney, Gary Phelan.
The settlement also
called for the school system to provide the girl with any necessary tutoring
“to become current with her studies caused by the above-referenced absence from
Meadowside Elementary School.”
The settlement also said
there was “no admission of liability or fault” by either side.
And it specified that
Opayemi would then withdraw his federal lawsuit.
Under another provision
of the agreement, it stated, “The parties agree that this agreement relates to
a confidential and educational matter, on which no public comment is
appropriate. Accordingly, the parties agree that they will not disparage the
other. This agreement shall not be disclosed publicly, except as required by
the (Connecticut) Freedom of Information Act.”
The New Haven Register
did file a complaint with the FOI Commission in an effort to obtain the
settlement agreement.
The Register withdrew the
complaint this week after the city agreed to release the settlement agreement.
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