ATLANTA - A disastrous science experiment left an eighth-grade Forsyth County student nearly blind in one eye, and Georgia's top court is considering Monday whether the teacher should be held liable for the mishap.
Patricia Grammens hoped the experiment she found on a NASA web site would help teach her South Forsyth Middle School class principles of flight, air pressure and propulsion. But when a metal pin holding down a plastic bottle simulating a rocket launch slammed into David Dollar's right eye, it instead led to four surgeries and a lengthy legal dispute.
Dollar wasn't wearing goggles at the time of the May 2004 accident, and his father filed a lawsuit claiming that his teacher violated a county policy that students must wear protective devices during any experiment involving ``caustic or explosive materials.''
But Grammens' attorney Matt Moffett told the Georgia Supreme Court that she should be protected by official immunity because there were no explosive materials used in the experiment, which involved using air and water to launch the bottle. Grammens also argued it was not clear how the school's safety policies applied to the experiment.
Dollar's attorney countered that the teacher failed to follow a simple policy that required Dollar and other students to wear goggles when potentially dangerous experiments are conducted.
``All I've got to do is tell the student to put on a pair of safety goggles, and she didn't do that in this particular instance,'' said James Blitch.
He added: ``You've got to wear safety goggles when you're launching a rocket. Anybody knows that.''
Saturday
April 5th, 2025
3:52AM
