School District Faces $10 Million Claim

Last Nov. 17, Rigby High School student Timothy Tinker was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital with a potentially deadly meningococcal infection. On the same day, area health officials were ordering $56,000 worth of vaccine to treat 2,400 Rigby-area students.

Now a $10 million tort claim has been filed against the Rigby School District, Jefferson County and the state on behalf of Tinker. The claim alleges that officials did not properly warn parents about the outbreak of the disease.

The claim alleges Tinker lost his toes and part of both feet and suffered serious damage to his arms, legs, hands, fingers and lungs due to negligence. The claim, required before a lawsuit can be filed against a government entity, was filed in Jefferson County last week.

Area health officials say the school district acted quickly to stop the disease from spreading further.

“I feel they handled the situation as they should have,” Bobbe Crapo, District 7 Health Department’s physical health director, said Monday.

“It was really a model of quick responsiveness,” said Karen Cowgill, District 7 Health Department epidemiologist.

Tinker was diagnosed just days after the second Rigby teen had his illness confirmed as the bacterial disease. The health department considers an outbreak of the infection after two or more related cases are diagnosed.

The first case was diagnosed in early October, and Tinker came down with symptoms on Nov. 16.

Tinker’s family had no comment on the tort claim or the boy’s condition.