A Colorado woman has filed a lawsuit against her 12-year-old son’s school district after the little boy broke both of his legs after rolling down a wheelchair ramp unsupervised.
Patricia Portillo Estrada filed a civil suit against Adams 12 Five Star Schools, where her son was enrolled at Rocky Mountain Elementary School. She and her son, who immigrated to the United States together, speak primarily Spanish and need district employees to serve as interpreters.
According to documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, Portillo Estrada’s son suffers from multiple disabilities and birth defects, including intellectual, orthopedic and speech disorders. Disabilities left him wheelchair-bound.
The lawsuit alleges the district failed to accommodate the little boy since at least October 2020, when he started school, until now “failing” to supervise or assist their functional mobility.
This negligence “reached new heights on May 10, 2022,” the lawsuit claims. That day, the boy fractured the tibia and fibula in both legs after losing control of his wheelchair while going down a ramp on campus.
Patricia Portillo Estrada filed a civil suit against Adams 12 Five-Star Schools in Colorado after her wheelchair-using son was injured on a ramp.
The suit alleges the boy was unsupervised while trying to cross a ramp between classrooms at Rocky Mountain Elementary School and lost control and slammed into a wall.
The boy’s knees “absorbed the impact,” according to the lawsuit. He was hospitalized for a week and bedridden for a month, which left him with sores.
According to the elementary school itself, staff did not report the boy’s injury.
After the accident, at least one school employee found the boy at the bottom of the ramp, but reportedly did not come to his aid. Instead, the little boy had to gather himself and return to class.
The boy was injured at 8:15 a.m., just 10 minutes into the school day. “As a result, Plaintiff spent seven hours in severe pain before seeing his mother,” the lawsuit states.
An internal school report says several staff members observed the boy “on the verge of tears” throughout the day.
However, Portillo Estrada was not informed of her son’s condition and only became aware of it once she picked him up from the bus stop that afternoon.
“Without knowledge of the accident and without information from the school, Ms. Portillo Estrada had no way of knowing the severity of plaintiff’s injury,” the suit claims.
She texted the school to ask about the incident, accompanied by a photo of her son grimacing in pain, but did not receive a response.
When the school finally responded, the message “insinuated that the complainant’s pain was due to shoulder discomfort,” although the boy did not begin experiencing significant shoulder or back pain until after the injury.
Text messages show Portillo Estrada asking the school about her son’s injuries, but she receives no response. She kept the little boy at home the next day because he continued to experience severe pain.
When he was sent back to school on May 12, the school asked Portillo Estrada to pick him up and take him to the hospital or they would call an ambulance.
The school advised Portillo Estrada to take her son to the doctor.
Portillo Estrada told the school that her son was suffering from pain and swelling in his knees, but the school claimed the boy did not suffer any injuries on campus, according to the lawsuit.
The school reportedly suggested the boy must have injured himself when he fell out of bed.
“Regardless of the cause of Plaintiff’s pain, RME took no action to address, treat or alleviate Plaintiff’s condition throughout the day on May 10. Instead, he remained confined in his wheelchair, with broken legs,” the complaint states.
The next day, she kept the 12-year-old at home because he continued to experience significant pain.
On May 12, Portillo Estrada sent him back to school. Hours later, Rocky Mountain Elementary School demanded that she pick up her son or she would call an ambulance, the suit says.
Portillo Estrada took her son to the emergency room in Broomfield. He was transferred to Children’s Hospital at Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, where he was diagnosed with bilateral fractures.
His injuries were so severe that Portillo Estrada was interviewed by a clinical social worker, according to the complaint.
The little boy was hospitalized for a week and had to maintain total immobilization of his legs for another four weeks after his diagnosis.
According to the lawsuit, being bedridden for more than a month led the boy to develop bedsores, only worsening his anxiety.
In June, Portillo Estrada met with director Kate Vogel. Vogel reviewed security footage and launched an investigation, but lawsuit says it should have happened sooner
In June, Portillo Estrada and an interpreter spoke with director Kate Vogel. The suit alleges the school denied any wrongdoing until that meeting, when the principal reviewed security footage from the morning of the incident.
The images showed the boy unattended and unattended, according to the documents. He tried to cross the railings between classrooms and lost control.
The footage showed the boy’s wheelchair rolling down the ramp and crashing into a concrete wall. According to the lawsuit, his knees “absorbed the impact.”
The elementary school then wrote a summary of the video and gave it to Portillo Estrada. Shortly after, Vogel opened an investigation.
The suit claims the school’s failure to supervise the boy and examine the circumstances surrounding his injuries at the time they occurred “manifests a deliberate indifference to the boy’s health, welfare and rights protected by the plaintiff’s federal government.”
It further alleges that the boy’s individualized education program has been changed several times since 2020. The program states that he needs supervision and assistance navigating ramps and uneven terrain in a wheelchair.
“The school’s conduct before, and after, May 10, 2022 is emblematic of a pattern or practice of neglect and failure to meet Plaintiff’s needs as a person with a disability,” the documents state.
“This trend or practice is sufficiently severe and pervasive to constitute intentional discrimination against Plaintiff as a person with a disability.”
The school is accused of violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Colorado’s anti-discrimination law.
Portillo Estrada is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, including compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.