VIRGINIA BEACH — The mother of a St. John the Apostle Catholic School student who was suspended for not immediately reporting that a classmate had a bullet is suing the school.
Rachel Wigand filed the complaint Monday in Virginia Beach General District Court. She’s asking that she be reimbursed for the $4,780 in tuition she paid for her 11-year-old son for the first half of the school year, as well as attorney’s fees and other costs.
The lawsuit claims the school breached its contract with the Wigand family by punishing the boy. The student-parent handbook, which lays out obligations that students must meet, doesn’t say anything about needing to immediately report incidents in which a student has ammunition, according to the lawsuit. The only thing that it says must be immediately reported is allegations involving sexual harassment, the complaint says.
The complaint also alleges that St. John’s failed to provide a safe learning environment for Wigand’s son by not using such things as metal detectors to ensure that students are not bringing unsafe items into the school.