The threat of a lawsuit over injuries caused during alleged trust falls in a Jamestown High School gym class has been discontinued … for now.

Attorneys for the Jamestown Public Schools District and Lindsey Bloomberg came to the decision in late April. The move was preceded by a change in the school district’s attorney from Alison Bosworth to Bond, Schoeneck and King in Buffalo.

“It is hereby stipulated and agreed, by and between the undersigned, the attorneys of record in the above entitled action, that whereas no party hereto is an infant or incompetent person for whom a committee has been appointed and no person not a party has an interest in the subject matter of the special proceeding, seeking pre-action disclosure, the above entitled action be, and the same hereby is, discontinued, without prejudice to bring a subsequent action related to injuries alleged to have been sustained by Infant C.S. and without costs to either party as against the other.”

The use of the phrase “without prejudice” means the same case or a similar case can be filed in the future. A case dismissed with prejudice can’t be brought back to court, while a case dismissed without prejudice means the person who filed the case can try again.

Bloomberg and her attorneys hadn’t filed legal action yet in regard to the injury to Bloomberg’s daughter. Instead, the January filing in state Supreme Court in Mayville focused on how much information the Jamestown Public Schools District had to turn over to Bloomberg and her attorney in preparation for a potential lawsuit.

Justice Grace Hanlon ruled in February there would be some limits to the information Bloomberg would receive – namely all surveillance video of the gym class on Nov. 2, 2023, capturing the student and for a period of time following the student after her gym class, a list of the students who participated in or were present during the alleged trust fall exercise and provide the names of any faculty or staff members present, in addition to gym teacher Scott Shawley, or confirm there were no other faculty of staff present. Also, the district had been ordered to provide copies of any witness statements obtained after the district was notified there was an injury, and an accounting of all other materials or documents that exist in any investigative file maintained by the school district beyond video footage and witness statements.

While Bloomberg had not filed a lawsuit, she had filed a notice of claim with the school district. In her original petition, Bloomberg claims her daughter was injured Nov. 2 “when she was caused to be struck in the head by another falling student.” As a result of the accident, Bloomberg said her daughter suffered “severe, permanent, and painful injuries, internal as well as external, and certain economic damages past, present, and future, including traumatic brain injury and brain surgery.”

“However, upon information and belief, there was not any indication during the subject physical education class or at any point during the Nov. 2, 2023, school day that (the student) suffered any injury,” Dr. Kevin Whitaker, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent, said in an affidavit filed in January. “If it was apparent that (the student) had suffered an injury, at a minimum her parent/guardian would have been notified promptly, and if appropriate based on the severity of the injury, an ambulance summoned. Neither occurred on the date in question because (the student) made no complaint of an injury on the date in question and an injury was not otherwise apparent.”