Lawsuit Filed Against Principal and Two Security Guards in Jefferson County After an Alleged Assault by a Bully on Another Student

A lawsuit has been filed against Butler Traditional High School Principal William Allen, two security guards and a student after an alleged assault against another student in late 2024.

The lawsuit references a video of one student attacking another, stating that the video had been shared on several social media sites.

The lawsuit claims that the attacker should not have been allowed to attend Butler, according to JCPS policies, with reason to believe that the attacker had previously been dismissed from two other JCPS high schools for assaulting students. 

Around Nov. 22, 2024, the security guards, Ronnie Vittitow and Robert Reedy, were warned that a student was in danger of being harmed by the aforementioned attacker, according to the lawsuit, claiming that all of the adults named in the lawsuit knew of the danger the student was in, but failed to protect him.

“We do believe it was preventable,” attorney Zack McKee said. ”Especially if the mother is notified prior to the incident even occurring that it’s probably going to occur and nothing stopped it from occurring.“

That incident was caught on camera by several students.

“The school is obviously a place of learning, and in the situation the student wasn’t protected, and not protected from the bullying and from this particular bully,“ McKee said. ”I just thought the video was tragic.“

Documents state that the student who was attacked needed medical attention after receiving injuries around his head and body.

According to the lawsuit, family and friends of the assaulted student were threatened by the attacker on social media. This caused the student who was assaulted and his sister to not return to school.

“No mother, no parent should be forced to deal with their child being brutally attacked by another student,” the student’s mother said in a statement. “Parents need to be held accountable for their child’s actions.”

The student who was attacked said that he missed his last semester of his senior year due to bullying.

“Since 2008, I have filed over 60 JCPS bullying cases and still nothing has been done to set a bullying policy,” Ted Gordon, one of the attorneys filing the case, said. “The questions surrounding this case goes beyond a simple scuffle in a school yard.”