In her lawsuit, Pendleton maintains that she brought an EpiPen to Hopkins Elementary prior to her daughter’s death, only to be rebuffed by a clinic aide who stated that the school already had one that Johnson could use in case of an allergic reaction.
Despite Pendleton’s attempt to give the school her daughter’s life-saving medication, the suit claims, school officials made a series of public statements in the days following Johnson’s death that focused solely on parents’ role in the execution of the school system’s severe allergy plan.
“I think you have to evaluate their words in the context of what was going on,” Krudys said during a hearing last year. “They were unmistakably saying, ‘We can’t do anything unless the parent brings in an EpiPen.’ They knew the significance of their statements. They were clearly saying that this woman is to blame.
I cannot get over how hateful it is for the school to have issued public statements engineered to blame the mother. This seems unnecessary even if the school's version of the facts (that Pendleton didn't bring the epis in) is true - you don't have to get that information OUT to the public to win the inevitable law suit and you don't elevate the school in anyone's eyes by doing so. These statements were intended to intimidate as well as re-victimize.