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Walter White who? New Mexico chemistry teacher brings real swords for students to duel with in classroom
According to a lawsuit, a 16-year-old NS was left injured after a duel with a fellow student with katana and rapier-styled swords.
Whenever one thinks of a high-school chemistry teacher, one is mostly reminded of the fictitious Walter White from the cult TV show Breaking Bad who used his chemistry to make mind-blowing crystal meth. Now it seems like Heisenberg has a rival. Not in the drugs business, but a chemistry teacher who is the “danger”.
According to a lawsuit whose details were just made public, ex-chemistry teacher Loviata Mitchell brought swords into the classroom and asked her students to fight with each other.
According to a lawsuit, 16-year-old N.S. (as she was identified in legal papers) was left injured after a duel with a fellow student with katana and rapier-styled swords. The high-school student is suffering from severed nerves and tendons.
The student has been left permanently injured by the duel which reportedly took place in May 2022 at Volcano Vista High School. According to NBC, the lawsuit alleges: “D.M. struck N.S. across her right forearm, wrist, and hand with the katana-style sword. N.S. suffered a large and deep laceration across her right hand and wrist that is inconsistent with a ‘prop’ sword.”
The lawsuit further states that the when it was apparent that the teenage girl was in agony, the teacher shouted “I’m in trouble” and asked students to delete videos they shot of the fights.
Footage, that the injured student didn’t delete shows two teen boys fighting with swords with desks around them and a timer on a large projector. The student’s guardian, in this case her grandfather, was called 20 minutes after the injury and 911 30 minutes later.
The victim underwent numerous surgeries, physical therapy and sought mental help and now finds mundane tasks a challenge. Her lawyer reportedly said: “Her wrist and hand are permanently injured. Those injuries cause her ongoing daily pain, as well as cause her to be unable to perform many basic daily tasks.”
Assistant principal, Manuel Alzaga, was also named as a defendant after she wrote in a school report that the injuries were suffered during a lesson on ‘metal and melding’. Alzaga even claimed the injury didn’t “violate any school rules”.
The plaintiff’s lawyer told KRQE: “It’s been devastating. I mean as you can imagine, this is a high school girl that this happens to. Not only is her life completely different, not only does she have the pain of a very serious injury that had a surgery with a very long recovery, but she also now has a very dramatic scar right on her wrist. Job prospects are now off the table for her. She’ll never be able to use her dominant hand the way she used to.”
The school district has refused to comment on the issue but noted that Mitchell, the chemistry teacher, was let go of her job in July 2022.
