GUILDERLAND — School-board candidate Timothy Horan, a retiring teacher, is being sued in federal court by parents who say that their daughter, then age 7, fell from the zip-line on the Pine Bush Elementary playground last fall. She broke both her wrists, the suit says, but was not allowed by Horan, her second-grade teacher, to go to the nurse’s office or seek any medical attention for the remainder of the school day.

Horan, 55, has worked at the district for 30 years, he told The Enterprise in April for a story about his candidacy. The suit was filed on May 9, a week before the May 16 election, in which five candidates are vying for three seats. After a Meet the Candidates event at the high school on Wednesday night, Horan declined comment.

Horan has the endorsement of the Guilderland Teachers’ Association. Union President Erin McNamara told The Enterprise that she was unaware that the suit had been filed but said, “The Guilderland Teachers’ Association fully stands behind Mr. Horan.”

When asked if it were true that he has a pattern of demeaning and humiliating students, as the suit alleges, McNamara said emphatically that he does not.

“He’s a phenomenal teacher who is revered by parents and students alike. He has dedicated 30 years to the district. What he’s brought in terms of his expertise, his passion for teaching, his love for student learning and being a part of that, is what he should be remembered for and admired for.”

Horan has filled various roles in the teachers’ union over the years, McNamara said, most recently, as union secretary, but “stepped away from that in anticipation of retirement and knowing that he needed to pass the torch on to someone else.”

McNamara said that Horan had been placed on paid administrative leave for a time after the incident, but asserted, “He had done nothing wrong.”

The district had provided inadequate supervision for the children while they used the playground equipment, the complaint says, even though the zip-line is a piece of equipment that the school’s own policy says should not be used by children younger than fourth grade.

Instead of being allowed to go to the nurse’s office or the hospital, the complaint says, the child was “forced” to go back to class and stay there for the rest of the day, “despite her fall, obvious distress, and signs of trauma.” The complaint details that the girl “was in extreme pain and unable to use her arms or hands and could do little more than sit at her desk with her head down.”

The child was subjected to “great physical and emotional pain and suffering” as a result of Horan’s conduct, which was a “direct consequence of policies and practices” of the district, the suit alleges. Horan’s conduct in failing to allow the child to seek help was, according to the complaint, unreasonable and done “intentionally, willfully, maliciously, with deliberate indifference and/or with a reckless disregard for plaintiff’s serious medical needs.”

The lawsuit, filed on May 9 with the United States District Court, Northern District of New York, names not only Horan but also the school district, both of which were “deliberately indifferent” to the child’s medical needs, it says, and “denied her access” to medical care. The girl is not named in the suit, and her parents, Stephen and Heather Leader of Guilderland, declined comment. Records show that they had first filed suit in state court last fall.

The lawsuit further alleges that the school district was aware of a pattern of behavior by Horan “of humiliation, belittlement, and improper conduct toward students.” The school district knew of this pattern of conduct, but did nothing to intervene, the suit alleges.

The document says that the district “encouraged and/or turned a blind eye to “Horan’s practices, which it called “malicious” and “demeaning.”

Their child fell at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2016, the complaint says, while using the “slider” zip-line, and immediately reported her injuries to Horan and other “agents, servants and employees” of the district.

As a result of the delay in seeking medical care, pain medications, anti-inflammatory medications, and other forms of treatment, the complaint says, the child experienced increased pain and suffering and her condition was aggravated and exacerbated. Effects of the incident include “permanent loss of range of motion,” according to the complaint.

Zip-line risk

This piece of equipment is one that students younger than fourth grade are, by the district’s own policy, not allowed to use, “due to the excessive risk of injury it posed to young children,” the complaint says.

The complaint says that district officials “failed to properly and adequately supervise the plaintiff” and that it “negligently and carelessly provided access to said ‘slider’ zip line equipment to children who were too young to use this apparatus without an unreasonable risk of injury.”

The zip-line and the area around it was “negligently designed and maintained as to present an unreasonable risk of harm,” the complaint alleges.

The suit also claims that the district improperly or inadequately trains its staff to recognize and respond to serious medical needs of students.

Superintendent Marie Wiles said that the district had received a notice of claim. “But I don’t know that I can comment much more than to say that we received it,” she said on Wednesday evening.

Asked if she knows Horan well, Wiles said that he has been a district employee for 30 years and that he has taught in two of the district’s elementary schools, Westmere and Pine Bush.

About the zip-line and policies for its use, Wiles said, “We have guidelines for what’s appropriate for certain grades of students to use with or without spotting or observing. That’s probably the best I can say.”

McNamara said she believes the version of the story she has heard from Horan, and that the story about the girl not being allowed to go to the nurse “never happened.”

The child was encouraged to go to the nurse, McNamara said.