Students Sue Tulsa Schools Over Alleged Beating

Friday, October 23rd 2015, 6:26 pm

By: Emory Bryan

A family is suing Tulsa Public Schools claiming their children were beaten by a security guard. It's just the beginning of the legal process, but the allegations are significant - two children beaten to the point they were unconscious and had to be taken from school by paramedics.

The lawsuit was just filed, by 18-year-old Tony Thomas and his younger brother, who claim a security guard for Tulsa Public Schools assaulted them.

The guard has yet to be identified.



The two boys attend Hale High School, where they claim at the end of school one day - a security guard pulled one of them aside.

Their attorney is Dan Smolen.

"The younger brother was accused of stealing a cell phone. He was corralled into the security guards office and the other brother heard about his brother being in there, went in there to find out what was going on and both boys were beaten severely by the officer," said attorney Dan Smolen.

Like all Tulsa high schools, Hale has full time security guards who work underneath the TPS police department. The school district wouldn't comment on the status of the security guard accused of the beating.

The lawyer said the district also didn't alert the parents about their children.

"The students didn't call the ambulance. They were unconscious. Someone at TPS called the ambulance on their behalf. What shocked us was that the parents weren't notified about the transfer until after the transport. The parents weren't notified," Smolen said.

Smolen says he's waiting on medical reports and records from the school to figure out what exactly happened, but says his clients had injuries that can't be easily explained, including concussions and a head injury that required stitches.



Tulsa Public schools, through the court process has denied liability - but a spokesman on Friday said the district could not comment on any of the allegations in the lawsuit, or answer questions about the status of the security guard.