JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - A Mississippi school district isn’t liable for injuries suffered by an eighth-grade boy after two girls tricked him into a TikTok challenge called “Skull Crusher” in which they undercut the student after he jumped into the air.
Chelsea and Jason Bumpous sued the Tishomingo County School District on behalf of their son A.B., who was attending show choir class at Ioka Middle School in 2020 when the girls convinced him to participate in what they described as a TikTok “jump challenge.” Actually, it was “Skull Crusher.”
One of the girls set up a phone to video the challenge and when A.B. jumped in the air, they kicked his feet out from under him, causing him to fall. A.B. wound up in the hospital and said he later attempted suicide because of the bullying he suffered at Ioka, including at the hands of the girls that day in choir class.
A trial court dismissed the case and the parents appealed, arguing there were numerous facts in dispute that only a jury could decide. But the Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, ruling in a Nov. 14 decision that the choir teacher wasn’t liable for negligent supervision because she couldn’t have anticipated what would happen.
The parents argued even the teacher Bethany Cheaves described her class that day as “chaos” and allowed students to use their cellphones against school policy. They also cited student testimony the teacher wasn’t watching when the jump challenge occurred, although the teacher disputed that.
Neither fact is material to the dispute, the appeals court ruled.
“Even if Cheaves did not witness A.B. fall, that does not show that Cheaves breached her duty as a reasonable show choir teacher,” the court ruled. It distinguished Mississippi cases where plaintiffs were allowed to continue suits where kindergarten teachers weren’t supervising children outside or where a bully taunted a student for a minute in the hearing of the teacher before punching him.
“The injury occurred suddenly with no forewarning, and Cheaves would not have been able to prevent it even if she had been standing right next to A.B. watching,” the court concluded. “Like students running around at recess, it was ordinary and reasonable behavior for students to be on their phones, standing, and dancing (or jumping) in show choir class.”
Judge David McCarty dissented, saying “witness after witness” described the choir class as a place where “you could basically just do whatever you wanted” and Cheaves violated school policy by allowing students to use their cellphones. Only a jury could decide whether those facts meant the school was liable for A.B.’s injuries, the judge wrote.