Tillotson Patton attorneys, together with co-counsel at Zehl & Associates, filed suit today in Tarrant County district court against All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth on behalf of a sixteen-year-old student who suffered three fractured vertebrae, a spinal cord injury, a severe concussion, and temporary paralysis in an on-campus assault that, the petition alleges, the School could have prevented.
According to the petition, during lunch on May 7, 2026, our client was lured into a hallway by three fellow students under the pretense of filming a video. Instead, they tricked him into a viral TikTok stunt known as the “skull crusher” — kicking his legs out from under him mid-jump so that he landed on his thoracic spine and struck his head on the floor. He was knocked unconscious. According to the petition, the students then stood over him laughing, called him a “loser,” and filmed his unconscious body for social media.
The petition alleges that none of this was a surprise to All Saints. The petition alleges that the same students had performed the identical stunt on at least six other children on campus — captured on the School’s own security cameras — without any intervention. According to the petition, the family met with administrators on at least three separate occasions to warn about escalating bullying targeting their son, and warned specifically that it would turn physical. The family alleges the School assured them it would protect him, and that it failed to do so.
The petition further alleges that the School’s failures continued after the assault. Despite our client’s known prior spinal history and obvious symptoms of a catastrophic spinal injury, School personnel moved him without a neck brace or spinal board and forced him to stand and walk on three fractured vertebrae. The petition alleges he was taken not to a nurse’s office — the Upper School does not have one — but to a converted closet, where a school nurse reportedly asked another student and parent whether his slurred speech and double vision were “baseline,” and that no ambulance was called for more than forty-five minutes.
Less than two weeks later, the petition alleges, All Saints sent an end-of-year letter to its community celebrating its “[c]ontinued investment in the safety and security of our community.” At the time, our client was still recovering from his injuries.
The petition asserts claims for negligence, negligent supervision, gross negligence, negligent emergency response, and breach of the School’s in loco parentis obligations, and seeks actual and exemplary damages.
Schools that hold themselves out as places of trust have a heightened duty to the children in their care. When a school knows about a dangerous culture, is warned by parents that a specific child is at risk, watches the warning signs on its own security cameras, and still does nothing — the consequences can be devastating. We believe that is what happened here. Tillotson Patton partners Jeff Tillotson and Mollie Mallory, along with our co-counsel, are committed to holding All Saints accountable.
“When a child is lying in pain on the floor with a suspected spinal injury, the most basic duty of care demands that you immobilize the spine and call 911 immediately.
All Saints did neither. Instead, staff forced a child with three fractured vertebrae to stand and walk, put him in a closet, and waited more than forty-five minutes to call an ambulance.
A school that stands in loco parentis takes on the highest duty the law recognizes outside of a parent’s own, and we intend to hold All Saints fully accountable for every failure — before and after the assault.”
Tillotson Patton represents the Plaintiff alongside co-counsel Boston C. Mallory of Zehl & Associates, PC.