HUFFMAN, Texas The family of a Huffman Middle School student is feeling a sense of relief after the district agreed to foot a growing medical bill on Thursday.
The bill is for Madison Meligan, a 13-year-old seventh-grader who broke her foot while loading logs on a trailer during school hours.
Everyone in her agriculture class was told to help because it was part of an annual firewood fundraiser for the school.
Madison admits grabbing a heavy piece and dropped it while trying to hoist the log into a trailer.
I was putting it up there and it kind of just rolled right off landed right on my foot, she said.
Her toe was shattered and she had a total of 17 fractures in her foot.
Her mother, Julee Meligan said she began calling the school to get some answers.
I felt like the school is definitely liable, Meligan told KHOU 11 News. It happened there. I didn t sign any kind of permission slip or anything.
Meligan said she called the school for a week and was told that they were not liable and that Madison should have worn steel-toed boots.
I said steel toed boots? What 13-year-old girl owns a pair of steel toed boots? Honestly I don t even have a pair, said Meligan.
To make matters worse, Madison was taken off her father s medical insurance a couple of weeks ago and her new policy starts in December.
Her mother has already paid more than $1,200 out of pocket.
In her frustration, she contacted KHOU 11 News through Facebook and we started calling the district to get some answers.
I probably slept two hours a night trying to figure out how I m gonna pay for her, Meligan admitted.
Shortly after our first call to Huffman ISD, the superintendent said they found a clause in the athletic student accident policy that includes agriculture students.
Madison s medical bills will be paid by the district after all. He also added that the fact that this happened after we started calling them was just a coincidence.
Meligan doesn t believe that.
They did not care, she said. That school did not care until I involved the media.
