(AOL) – A New Mexico school, its vice principal, and a teacher there are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that the teacher brought real swords into her science classroom and instructed students to fight with them, causing one student to become badly injured.
The lawsuit is being brought on behalf of the student, identified only as N.S., by her grandparents and permanent guardians, Arnold and Judy Gachupin. According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 23, N.S. was a 16-year-old sophomore at Albuquerque Public Schools’ Volcano Vista High School at the time.
The incident began when the teacher, identified in the lawsuit as Loviata Mitchell, brought two swords into the school on May 2, 2022. She allegedly hid them from students, security staff and other school personnel, until the class that N.S. was in. At that point, Mitchell allegedly announced that she had “surprise” for her students, according to the lawsuit, and revealed the two swords. One was a katana-style sword with a “long, curved blade and sharp edge,” according to the lawsuit, and the second was a rapier-style sword. Mitchell, according to the lawsuit, told the students the swords were props.
