Ruling favors school district in ants suit

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The 7th District Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s decision that found the Boardman Local School District isn’t liable after a student said she found ants in her lunch.

In 2007, LaShawn Taylor, the mother of a Boardman High School girl, filed a lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against the school board, seeking more than $75,000.

It contended that in January 2007, the girl was eating food “prepared, assembled and provided” to her by the school. The food was “contaminated with ants, and she ingested a portion of the contaminated food,” the lawsuit said.

The girl had nausea, vomiting, cramping and anxiety after eating the food and required emergency medical treatment, it said. She was unable to eat for three or four days and suffered physical effects for two weeks.

In October 2008, a common pleas court judge ruled in the school district’s favor. The court found that Boardman’s provision of school lunches was part of its governmental function, making it immune from the negligence claim.

The appeals court affirmed that decision Tuesday.