Mother sues Granite City school district claiming son slipped on ice

The mother of a minor boy has filed suit against her son’s school after she claims he slipped and fell on a patch of ice.

Chance Kloepper was attempting to enter Gringsby Middle School on Jan. 3 at about 8:50 a.m. when he fell on a patch of ice on the sidewalk, according to the complaint filed Sept. 18 in Madison County Circuit Court. The ice had formed from the drainage of an exterior gutter, Kloepper’s mother, Pamela Branscum, claims.

Because of Kloepper’s fall, he fractured his foot, experienced pain and incurred medical costs, the suit states.

Branscum blames Granite City Community Unit School District No. 9 for causing her son’s fall, saying it negligently failed to maintain its premises in a safe condition, failed to monitor the sidewalk to prevent unnatural accumulations of snow and ice, failed to clean unnatural accumulations of snow and ice and installed a downspout that allowed ice to accumulate on the sidewalk.

In her complaint, Branscum is seeking a judgment of more than $50,000, plus costs.

She will be represented by Samuel A. Mormino Jr. of Mormino, Velloff and Snider in Alton.

Madison County Circuit Court case number: 13-L-1586.