Norwood School Committee to Reconsider Four Student Injury Insurance Claims-August 11, 1975

Claims Total at Least $3,000 Amid Allegations of Negligence

⠀

School-related insurance claims for at least four students, totaling upward of $3,000, are set for renewed review by the Norwood School Committee following recent discussions initiated by committeeman Joseph M. Pentowski, who urged administrators to update and present the claim files. While previous understandings led some families to believe the school department would cover uninsured medical and dental expenses, a recent legal ruling by Town Counsel Justin C. Barton advised the board that it holds no strict legal obligation to pay damages unless active negligence can be legally proven, though the committee maintains “discretionary power” to settle individual cases.

Among the families seeking compensation are Mr. and Mrs. John F. Donovan Jr., whose nine-year-old son, Stephen, suffered severe dental injuries requiring $1,800 in restorative work and bone treatments after his teeth were broken while playing floor hockey during a school-sponsored gym class at the Oldham School. Represented by Dedham attorney Robert B. Russell, the Donovans argued that proper protective mouth guards—which their dentist, Dr. Robert Hunter, offered to supply prior to the accident—were not required by the school, noting that floor hockey was subsequently discontinued after the incident. Although an initial $250 partial payment was briefly placed on a town meeting warrant, it was pulled after members realized it covered only a fraction of the total costs. Similarly, Mrs. Fred deWysocki asserted negligence in her third-grade daughter Elizabeth’s playground injury at the Balch School, where the child’s front teeth were knocked out after being tripped by an older student on the hard asphalt recess yard—an accident she believes could have been prevented with better supervision and age-group separation. Though administrators previously indicated the school would pay, Mrs. deWysocki expressed skepticism, emphasizing that her primary goal is pushing for safer school environments.

A fourth major claim involves Bruno Anello, whose son Joseph sustained a football knee injury at Norwood High School in 1972. While initial surgery costs were defrayed by the school’s athletic insurance policy, coverage expired after one year. When Joseph entered college, chronic knee complications resurfaced, requiring a second costly operation and hospitalization that forced him to miss an entire semester and left the family with $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and a remaining $600 debt. Highlighting the plight of the affected families, committeeman Joseph M. Pentowski remarked, “I believe these people were innocent victims. There is no premeditated attempt to make a profit,” and announced plans to push for the claims to be placed on the upcoming special town meeting warrant.

(Reporting by Kathy Salzberg for The Patriot Ledger).

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger