Lyons Township High Attack Not Foreseeable: School

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School had no way of knowing that a student would be attacked in 2023 outside North Campus, its lawyer says.

Last month, the school's attorney responded to a lawsuit in Cook County Court filed by the families of two students. One was severely injured in the May 1, 2023, incident.

The lawsuit named the school and former Assistant Principal Darrell Mathis Jr. as defendants. In July 2023, Mathis left after four years to become athletic director at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.

The plaintiffs are two students and their mothers.

In court documents, the school's attorney, Charles LaMoine of Chicago law firm Tressler, said officials could not have foreseen the attack.

On April 28, 2023, both of the students were bullied and physically attacked by other high school students and a former student at a playground next to the school.

On May 1, 2023, the two students were involved in a fight with another student in the locker room at the school, the lawsuit said.

Mathis learned of the incident in the locker room and met with those involved, the plaintiffs said.

According to the school, Mathis escorted the attacker to his sister's car to remove him from campus earlier on May 1. Mathis' decision was made because the whereabouts of the fight's instigators – one of the plaintiffs and his friend – were unknown at that time, the school said.

"Any potential foreseeable violence that could have occurred at the school ... ended at that time," the school said in court documents.

The school said it had no way of knowing the student would return to the school and then launch the attack.

The plaintiffs alleged Mathis asked a mother to keep her son home the next day.

But the school said it was an order because her son was being suspended pending an investigation of the locker room incident.

"This was a disciplinary decision plain and simple, wholly within the decision-making authority of Mathis," LaMoine wrote.

The lawyer asserted that had Mathis not intervened earlier in the day, one of the plaintiffs would likely have been attacked without witnesses and without anyone immediately calling 911. In that case, the plaintiff would likely have suffered far more serious injuries and even death, LaMoine said.

As the attack happened, it occurred in broad daylight in front of witnesses.

The school is asking the court to throw out the lawsuit.

In the days after the incident, La Grange police arrested a juvenile on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

Around the same time, student James Hernandez, 18, of Brookfield, was charged with battery in the incident.

In the lawsuit, the families are being represented by attorneys Sam Adam Jr. and Lee DiBiasio.

In 2022, the high school paid out $140,000 in a settlement with the family of a 14-year-old girl who was seen in a video being pummeled by a 16-year-old girl in a hallway at South Campus.