County Rejects Kin’s Claim in School TB Case

The county has rejected claims for damages filed by the parents and elder sister of Debi French, the teen-ager who underwent surgery to have part of a lung removed in her fight against tuberculosis she caught during an outbreak at La Quinta High School.

Dennis Bunker, the county claims manager, said their claims were rejected because they missed legal deadlines.

But Bunker said the county decided to waive the time limit for Debi French’s own claim for unspecified damages, because she was a minor within six months of filing it. She turned 18 in February.

The county has 45 days in which to decide whether to honor that claim. It alleges the Orange County Health Care Agency could have halted the spread of TB at the Westminster high school and should have taken steps to inform students, parents and the community after the outbreak was discovered last year.

Any claim which the county denies can be appealed through the legal system. Richard McCain, the French family’s attorney, could not be reached late Friday to say whether he would take the rejected claims to court.

While French was the only one to contract TB, the rest of her family tested positive in October for the TB bacteria and were given drugs to reduce the possibility that they might become ill in the future.