Kelly Dubois
An 18-year-old Dover High School student who was shocked so severely this April that his heart stopped is suing the school, his teacher and the city, saying he suffered brain damage.
Kyle Dubois and his parents, Robert and Sandra, claim teacher Thomas Kelley did not warn Kyle and other students how badly hurt they could be by electrical demonstration cords in their electrical trades class. According to a suit filed in Strafford County Superior Court, Kelley encouraged Kyle to shock himself, even offering a Mountain Dew in exchange for doing so. "As a master electrician and experienced teacher of electrical technology, Mr. Kelley knew or should have known that the electrical circuits in his classroom could administer harmful or fatal shocks to his students," the suit says.
During class on March 11, Kyle Dubois willingly placed an alligator clamp on one of his nipples while a second student placed one on his other nipple and a third student plugged in a cord providing electricity, sending an approximately three-second jolt through Dubois, police said in a statement following an investigation of the incident.
The suit claims Kelley was "less than eight feet away at the time and saw and heard the students engaging in this activity."
Authorities did not file charges in the case, and police said Kelley denied the allegation he offered soda.
Kelley told police he was speaking to another student when everything happened.
"I was talking up my fantasy baseball team with one student and the next thing I know there was a commotion," Kelley said during a video interview obtained earlier by the New Hampshire Union Leader. "I look and I hear an �Ouch.' I look and there's Kyle going to the ground." Dubois' heart stopped and paramedics had to restart it with a defibrillator. He was in critical condition and had to be taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where doctors drilled a hole into his skull to check on brain swelling.
"Kyle suffered brain damage due to his heart stoppage," the suit says. "He suffers from short-term memory loss and other losses and disruptions related to this incident."
The suit also says Kelley "had a pattern and practice of leaving the students in his electrical technology class unattended for up to 20 minutes at a time" and that "other faculty members, administrators and staff members" knew this.
Kelley resigned about a month after the incident.
Kelley declined to comment on the suit yesterday. Superintendent Jean Briggs Badger referred questions to the school district's attorney Corey Belobrow, who also refused to comment.
City Manager Michael Joyal did not return a message.
The Dubois family is suing the district, the city and Kelley, alleging 11 different counts of negligence. Their attorney, R. David Depuy, did not return a message yesterday.
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