South Carolina school district faces lawsuit over student’s amputated finger

A mother in South Carolina has launched a harrowing lawsuit against the Beaufort County School District, claiming school staff threw away her daughter’s severed fingertip.

The traumatic incident occurred on 25 January 2024 at Lady’s Island Middle School when, according to the complaint, a student "forcefully closed the heavy door shut," crushing the young girl's finger.

The lawsuit, filed by Shameika Freeman on 16 January, suggests a chaotic scene where "another student left the classroom without a hall pass" just as the victim was heading to the bathroom.

Most distressingly, the legal filing alleges that school employees "did not preserve the amputated fingertip."

Because the digit was allegedly binned rather than kept for medics, surgeons were unable to reattach it during emergency surgery.

The school district has stated they are "unable to comment on pending litigation," but the legal documents pull no punches regarding the impact on the child.

The suit argues, "Defendant BCSD’s negligence, gross negligence, carelessness, recklessness, wilfulness, and wantonness caused Minor Plaintiff to sustain serious personal injuries of such a nature as to require expending monies for hospitalisation, surgeries, doctor’s care, and other medical necessities and to suffer great pain, extreme emotional distress, anxiety, grief, and sorrow."

Freeman is now seeking a jury trial and up to $300,000 in damages to cover the mounting medical bills and the lasting psychological trauma her daughter faces.

It is a heartbreaking reminder of how a split-second accident can be made infinitely worse by a failure in basic first aid.