Judge Allows Lawsuit in 2018 New Rochelle High School Stabbing to Proceed; Cites “Failure to Maintain a Safe Environment” Case Law

WHITE PLAINS, NY — In a victory for the plaintiffs, Justice Terry Jane Ruderman of the New York Supreme Court yesterday ordered a lawsuit filed in 2018 by Ethan Jordan, a former New Rochelle High Student, and Thelma Jordan, his grandmother, against the City School District of New Rochelle can move forward.

Ruderman granted in part a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

She dismissed the plaintiffs’ negligence claims that the District failed to provide sufficient care after Ethan Jordan was stabbed (the failure to call 911) and that the District made a negligent allocation of security resources. She noted that “the School District did not establish when or how an ambulance was contacted”.

Based on our past reporting, we know a parent called the police who called the fire department and no one from the high school called 911 or requested an ambulance to the scene.

Ruderman supported the plaintiffs’ negligence claims that the District failed to maintain a safe environment at New Rochelle High School (knowing that Bryan Stamps was dangerous and had been involved in incidents just prior to the classroom stabbing at New Rochelle High School and a prior stabbing at Isaac E. Young Middle School).

EDITOR’S NOTE: Talk of the Sound published a detailed chronology of the stabbing incident in 2018, updated in 2020, which was entered into evidence by plaintiff’s attorney in a motion opposing the motion for summary judgment. Robert Cox provided an affidavit to the plaintiff’s attorney, also submitted to the court.

634892018111ExhibitM–AffidavitandTalkOfTheSoundArticleRobertCox1-5-20.pdf

Bryan Stamps Chronology: What Really Happened on January 18 at New Rochelle High School?

On January 18, 2018, at approximately 8:20 a.m., while Ethan Jordan was a junior at New Rochelle High School, he was stabbed during class by defendant Bryan Stamps, another student at the school. Jordan had been sitting at his desk in Spanish class, taking a midterm, when Stamps, walking by after getting a pass from the teacher, stabbed him twice in his left side, below his armpit. Stamps then ran out of the classroom. The teacher obtained the assistance of a school security aide, who walked Jordan to the school nurse’s office, where the wound was bandaged, Jordan’s guardian was called, and an ambulance was summoned. The School District’s Medical Director, Dr. Brooke Balchan, happened to be in the school that morning, and took over Jordan’s care from the nurse. Jordan sustained a collapsed left lung and lacerated spleen and diaphragm that required emergency surgery later that day.

The lawsuit began on August 28, 2018, alleging the school district provided negligent supervision, negligent security, and a negligent response to Jordan’s injury following the incident.

In her decision on April 28, 2021, Ruderman ruled that while the attack on Jordan may have been sudden, and may have appeared to be spontaneous she could not conclude that the attack was unforeseeable in light of recent incidents involving Stamps and his disciplinary history.

Issues are raised as to whether the School District could reasonably have been expected to foresee the possibility of another attack by Bryan Stamps, and to adopt means or methods of supervision which could have prevented such an attack. This Court therefore rejects the School District’s argument that, as a matter of law, it lacked the requisite notice for a negligent supervision claim….a failure to maintain a safe environment.

In dismissing the other negligence claims made by the plaintiffs, Ruderman ruled that despite plaintiffs’ contention that the School District’s employees failed to call 911 as timely as they should have, plaintiff has failed to demonstrate the existence of an issue of fact as to whether that claimed breach of duty was a proximate cause of injury to Ethan Jordan.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We would direct readers to the Opposition to the Summary Judgment by Plaintiff’s Attorney Michael L. Taub which includes a searing indictment of school security in the City School District of New Rochelle which appears to include reference to Document 104 which has been restricted under a confidentiality agreement, that document appears to be a deposition of New Rochelle Director of Security Bruce Daniele.

63489201897AffirmationofMichaelL.TaubEsqinOppositiontoMotion.pdf