Kendrick Johnson’s parents sue Georgia school system
The parents of a 17-year-old Georgia teen who was found dead in a rolled up gym mat at his high school is suing the district.
Kendrick Johnson died in Jan. 2013.
Classmates found the body of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson of Valdosta in the middle of a mat propped upright against the wall of their high school gym Jan. 11, 2013. Sheriff’s investigators concluded that the teenager died in a freak accident, having become stuck upside down in the center of the mat while trying to retrieve a gym shoe. But his parents have long insisted somebody killed him.
The lawsuit by Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson sheds little new light on the case. It mentions that Johnson had been in a fight with another student during a bus trip to a football game a year before his death. The lawsuit also blames school officials for not interviewing classmates “who witnessed incidents of harassment and threats” against Johnson.
The lawsuit filed Monday in Lowndes County Superior Court seeks to hold the county school board, school superintendent and the principal of Lowndes High School responsible.
It says Johnson died “at the hands of one or more students while upon the property of Lowndes High School and during its normal hours of operation.”
According the school board attorney Warren Turner, the district had not been served with the lawsuit.
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