COMPTON : District Settles Lawsuit Over Schoolyard Injury

School officials have agreed to pay $70,000 into a trust fund for an 8-year-old student who suffered permanent head injuries after a schoolyard accident three years ago.

A lawsuit filed by guardians of the student, Traevon Crumby, accused Compton school officials of negligence in failing to provide adequate supervision.

His attorneys said the boy, then a first-grader at Roosevelt Elementary School, suffered head injuries when another student pushed him off a slide. Traevon still has periodic blackouts, according to the suit. The guardians initially had sought $3 million.

School officials approved the settlement because they did not want to take the case to trial, said Melanie E. Lomax, an attorney for the district. The district did not admit any wrongdoing.

Lomax said the school district provided adequate supervision--five teachers were overseeing about 150 schoolchildren--at the time of the incident. “It’s literally impossible for school officials to prevent all injuries to students,” she said.