Grand Falls-Windsor family suing province, N.L. Schools after accident severs student's fingertips

A Grand Falls-Windsor family is suing N.L. Schools and the provincial Department of Education after an 11-year-old girl had two of her fingertips accidentally severed in an unsupervised classroom.

Kamara White, a student at Sprucewood Academy, told CBC News that another person in the classroom had fallen into her during a game of "red light, green light" during lunch, which led to pushing and shoving.

The game happened while a teacher was moving between three classrooms on lunch duty, she said.

"We kept on pushing until I fell down, and the desk took the two tops of my finger off," Kamara said, adding she believes her fingers were sliced by the metal on the front of the desk.

"When I looked down, then I saw the whole fingertips off."

Scared and in shock, Kamara says she was told by another teacher to go to the office. There she grabbed tissues for herself, she said.

Kamara's mother, Annette White, was then notified of the incident — but later learned that none of the school's teachers had administered first aid or called 911.

The family went to the emergency room, which led to the fingers being frozen and three hours of surgery.

"[Their] words were, I'll never get it out of my head, 'There was an incident in Kamara's class during lunchtime. We think she might have hurt her finger or a nail on a desk. If you would like to stop by, you can," Annette White said.

Speaking with teachers and staff following the incident, White said she was told that staff trained in first aid simply froze during the incident.

"They seen all the blood, they should have thought it was serious. But they didn't even bother to look," she said.

Kamara is now on a long road to recovery, her mother said. Two bones had to be ground down to the first knuckle and the tissue and skin will need considerable time to heal and regrow.

The fingers are also on Kamara's dominant hand, she said, greatly impacting her ability to do a number of things including basketball.

Now, the family has brought legal action against the Department of Education and N.L. Schools.

"It's the school board's responsibility to keep my children safe. I have to keep them safe at home, you have to keep them safe at school. One teacher to three classrooms that have 28 to 29 kids during lunch is not acceptable," White said.

"It's OK to have first aid and freeze, but not one of four, five people can turn their back and call 911? How is that sensible?"

CBC News asked the Department of Education for its explanation of what happened. In an emailed statement from department spokesperson Lynn Robinson, she said the department was aware of a "distressing incident" where a student "sustained injury to fingertips on two fingers."

"School administration and department officials are working with the family and student, to support the student's educational needs," the statement said.

In response to questions about policies surrounding student supervision, Robinson wrote that procedures are outlined for supervision during non-instructional times, which includes having a required number of staff trained in first aid.

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