PITTSBURGH – After an altercation two years ago when a nurse/school bus aide stabbed a school employee in the back, the injured employee has filed a lawsuit against the nurse and her employer in an Allegheny County court, alleging that the company should have known the nurse was mentally ill and worked to prevent incidents like the one which transpired.
Allison Wolbert and Nathan Wolbert of Westview filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 10 versus Rochelle Lynn Pinkle of New Castle and Stat Staffing Medical Services, Inc., of Pittsburgh.
“On Nov. 22, 2021, Allison Wolbert was employed at the Watson Institute located at 301 Camp Meeting Road, Sewickley, PA 15143. During the normal course of wife-plaintiff’s employment, part of her job is to walk children into the school from their buses as those children are being dropped off at school. At times, this process entails wife-plaintiff going onto the buses and escorting the students from those buses and then into the school. Defendant Pinkle was employed by defendant Stat. Part of defendant Pinkle’s duties were to act as a nurse/bus aide and escort disabled students from their homes to the school,” the suit states.
“On the morning of Nov. 22, 2021, defendant Pinkle was working as a nurse/bus aide and was escorting the severely disabled, unnamed student on the bus ride to the school. Defendant Pinkle’s primary responsibility was to provide medical care to the student should he have needed it during the bus ride. The school bus arrived at the school and as usual wife-plaintiff boarded the bus to escort the student off the bus and into the school. Wife-plaintiff has escorted this student off his bus and into the school on many occasions and was well acquainted with him and his needs. As wife-plaintiff was unbuckling the student from his seat, she overheard defendant Pinkle acting strangely and seemed to be making Biblical remarks and shaking her head. Wife-plaintiff overheard Pinkle say that Pinkle was ‘putting today into God’s hands.”
The suit continues that as the wife-plaintiff was accompanying the student off the bus, he tripped and fell to the floor – as a result, defendant Pinkle and wife-plaintiff both helped the student up, while at the same time, defendant Pinkle followed the wife-plaintiff and student towards the front of the bus, “rambling and talking about prayer.”
Subsequently, Pinkle did not stop following the pair off the bus and was actually holding onto the student’s vest, saying that she “had to help wife-plaintiff escort the student into school”, but the wife-plaintiff replied that she did not need any more help.
“At this time, Pinkle pulled the student toward her and raised her voice as she pulled a large kitchen knife from her coat near her zipper. Pinkle knocked wife-plaintiff to the ground. Wife-plaintiff scrambled to her feet screaming ‘Knife’ as many times as she could do so. While wielding the large, black-handled kitchen knife, Pinkle knocked the student to the ground, and wife-plaintiff feared for the student’s safety. Wife-plaintiff ran toward the student, still screaming ‘Knife!’ repeatedly. As she was running, wife-plaintiff heard her walkie-talkie come alive with an alert, saying the school is going into ‘lockdown mode.’ As wife-plaintiff approached Pinkle and the student, Pinkle turned her attention to wife-plaintiff and grabbed her,” the suit says.
“As Pinkle grabbed wife-plaintiff she used her opposite hand to swing the knife at wife-plaintiff and stabbed her twice in the back. At all times, wife-plaintiff was acting to protect the student who she felt was in imminent danger at the hands of Pinkle. The bus driver alighted from the bus and approached Pinkle trying to engage her. The next thing that wife-plaintiff remembered was another employee of the school telling her to go inside. Wife-plaintiff ran into the school building. A nurse met her there and ushered wife-plaintiff into a classroom, where wife-plaintiff was told she had been stabbed. Wife-plaintiff was treated at the scene for her wounds as an ambulance was en route. Wife-plaintiff was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance. Wife-plaintiff was treated for her wounds and her wounds were stapled shut.”
The wife-plaintiff suffered a collapsed lung, among other serious injuries, and continues to experience scarring, increased anxiety, emotional trauma and extreme fatigue, necessitating that she work under limitations as a result of this attack.
“On information and belief, Pinkle was arrested and charged with various felony crimes as a result of her actions. On information and belief, Pinkle was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Defendant Stat knew, or should have known by any reasonable investigation, experience and diligence, that defendant Pinkle was mentally ill and therefore unfit for the position of nurse/bus aide,” the suit says.
“Stat knew or should have known by reasonable inspection, experience and diligence, that this situation of having a mentally ill person escort a student on a school bus was likely to create a risk of serious physical harm. Stat has a duty to students and people like the wife-plaintiff to have better hiring and training practices and breached these duties through their negligent actions and inactions, and as a consequence of that breach, wife-plaintiff sustained serious and permanent injury.”
For counts of assault, battery, negligence, respondeat superior/vicarious liability, corporate negligence and loss of consortium, the plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of $50,000, interests, costs and such other relief as the Court deems appropriate.
The plaintiffs are represented by Trent Echard, Matthew Marquette and Paul Staub of Echard Marquette, in Allison Park.
The defendants have not yet obtained legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-23-013034
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com