NEW SCOTLAND — The Voorheesville Central School District’s insurer is out $22,500 after the district settled a lawsuit brought by the parent of a child injured during an elementary-school gym class. 

In October, an Albany Court judge signed off on an order authorizing the Utica National Insurance Company to pay Stephanie Remmert $16,183.97, and her lawyers, Harding Mazzotti LLP, $6,316.07. 

Superintendent Frank Macri declined to comment. 

Remmert could not be reached for comment; her lawyer, Patrick Slade, did not return a request for comment prior to publication. 

The suit, filed in September, was in response to an incident that occurred during a May 2022 Voorheesville Elementary School physical education class focused on lacrosse, according to court documents. 

The filing states that, on May 10, 2022, Remmert’s son was injured when another student hit him in the mouth with a lacrosse stick, resulting in a lacerated lip and a broken tooth.  According to court documents, no safety equipment was provided to Remmert’s son for the activity, nor was he wearing a helmet, facemask, mouth guard, or any protective gear.

Remmert’s petition states her son “went to the school nurse's office and was instructed, by a substitute school nurse, to gargle water and return to class. The tooth fragment was located but the school nurse made no effort to preserve the tooth tissue until [he] was able to see a dentist.”

The filing documents several dental treatments Remmert’s son underwent following the incident, including bonding and rebonding the tooth as well as a root canal.  

The substitute school nurse’s handling of the situation was later criticized by Dr. Patrick Mottolese, DDS, who told Remmert that her son’s “injury should have been treated as an emergency by the school and he should have been sent to the dentist immediately with his tooth in a glass of milk.”