NEW ORLEANS -- Parents are suing a military academy after their child committed suicide.
Donna-Kay E. and Stephen P. Armshaw filed a federal complaint on July 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy, Inc. (NOMMA), Voltaire Alexander Casio as a NOMMA/OPBS employee, and Orleans Parish School Board for gross negligence, failure to report bullying, failure to provide adequate suicide prevention policy to school officials, teachers and counselors and state-created danger created by a public official.
According to the complaint, V.A. was student at NOMMA between August 2018 until the time of her suicide on November 4, 2020. V.A., a 16-year-old female, was already struggling psychologically after she had been raped on July 4, 2019, along with struggling from isolation due to the COVID-19 shutdown and bullying by classmates, the suit says.
V.A. told one of her teachers, Voltaire Alexander Casino, a biology teacher at NOMMA, about all these things, the suit says. Casino never reported any of these things to V.A.’s parents or the school administration, the suit alleges.
Shortly before V.A.'s death, Casino asked a counselor to send V.A. suicide prevention material, and the counselor never reported it to V.A,'s parents or the school administration, the suit says. On Nov. 4, 2020, V.A. committed suicide.
The Armshaws seek an amount of damages reasonable, attorney's fees and cost of suit. The Armshaws are represented by Casey C. DeReus of Baer Law, LLC,
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:21-cv-01398-JTM-MBN