Kansas Settles Lawsuit Over Death Of Deaf Boy

From: KMBC, MO - 24 Dec 2002

Boy Struck By Train While On School Field Trip

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The state plans to pay $375,000 to the parents of a School for the Deaf student who died on a field trip two years ago.

Governor Graves and legislators agreed today to settle a lawsuit filed in Jackson County, Mo., by John and Roberta Barnett of Olathe. Their 15-year-old son, Justin, died after being hit by a train in March 2000.

The train struck the boy while he and another student were moving old railroad ties to teacher Charles Marsh Jr.'s property near Hume, Mo.

Marsh had planned to create a haven for his students, and the field trip had been described as a community service project. The school is in Olathe.

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.