{"id":26044,"date":"2024-08-20T18:02:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T00:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/student-receives-payout-from-bloomfield-schools-after-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:32:54","slug":"student-receives-payout-from-bloomfield-schools-after-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/student-receives-payout-from-bloomfield-schools-after-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Student receives payout from Bloomfield Schools after lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mother sued after student was \u2018smacked\u2019; a suit alleging that staff were pinched continues in court<\/div>\n

\"Mesa
Mesa Alta Middle School principal Colin Mize has had multiple complaints filed against him, one of which prompted a criminal investigation.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One case was settled out of court and a second remains on the docket in the 11th Judicial District in cases that involve a former middle school principal who pinched his subordinates and reportedly struck a student.<\/p>\n

The Bloomfield Municipal School District, Mesa Alta Junior High School and then-Principal Colin Mize were sued by Natasha Gifford, the mother of a boy whom Mize reportedly struck in the back of the head while in his official capacity as school administrator.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told my client to bend over and smacked him in the back of the neck,\u201d attorney Arlon Stoker said, adding that the young man underwent physical therapy because of the incident.<\/p>\n

The complaint was filed Oct. 25, 2022, about five months after Mize reportedly struck the teenager on May 13, 2022, in the lunchroom at the school, according to court records.<\/p>\n

In a personnel letter that the Tri-City Record<\/em> obtained under the Inspection of Public Records Act, Mize admitted that he struck the child. In the letter, Mize said the incident happened May 12, 2022, which was one day earlier than reported by the Bloomfield Police Department.<\/p>\n

He wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cI had him look me in the eyes, and I explained that he broke his promise to me, and that promises are words to be valued or to not say them at all. I then asked him what they would do in Lovington \u2013 he stated \u2018what?\u2019 During that time, I had him lean his head forward, and I \u2018smacked\u2019 his neck. This was not done in an aggressive manner \u2013 he was not offended by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mize also stated in the letter that his actions might \u201cseem malicious and hurtful,\u201d but he was in a situation that \u201cwas built on trust, relational capacity and mutual understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colin
Colin Mize, former principal of Mesa Alta Middle School.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Witnesses told police the child \u201cwas hit hard enough that his entire body jolted forward,\u201d according to a Bloomfield police report dated May 18, 2022.<\/p>\n

Stoker requested the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office file charges against Mize, but the office declined.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Decker wrote in a letter, dated Jan. 27, 2022, to the Bloomfield Police Department that there was \u201cno doubt that Mr. Mize touched (the teen), the criminal charge of battery required the touching be done in a rude, insolent or angry manner,\u201d and Decker believed it was not done in such a way.<\/p>\n

Although criminal charges were not filed, the Bloomfield School District settled the lawsuit out of court on April 2, 2024, and a motion to seal the records pertaining to the settlement in the case was approved by District Judge Sarah Weaver.<\/p>\n

The motion stated that \u201cas a public entity, settlement agreements and releases with Defendants and related documents and records are typically subject to New Mexico\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Lucinda Silva, guardian ad litem for the teenager, stated in the motion that the \u201cdisclosure of the minor beneficiary\u2019s personal and sensitive information and identity, the settlement amount, the uses to which the settlement funds will be put and the manner in which the payments are made in this case could subject the minor to harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 2, 2024, a bank account was set up and funded with the settlement, and the account information was shared with Gifford and Stoker, according to court records.<\/p>\n

\u201cBloomfield Municipal Schools settled out of court,\u201d Stoker said, adding there were at least three other students and a couple of teachers who witnessed Mize striking the child. \u201cThey don\u2019t settle out of court on lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tri-City Record<\/em> spoke with Mize, and he declined to comment.<\/p>\n

However in an email sent to the Tri-City Record,<\/em> Mize stated that the allegations made against him were false and the articles previously published contained \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mize wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering your purpose or goal to be a primary source of information, by definition, your articles need to be based on factual information. The research y\u2019all conducted of me giving a student a concussion is completely false and can be proven by completing an IPRA request to the right source, including the police,\u201d Mize wrote.<\/p>\n

The Tri-City Record<\/em> has obtained copies of the police reports about the incident and has published articles based on the document.<\/p>\n

In the case that remains, three women, who were subordinates to Mize sued him and Bloomfield Municipal Schools Board of Education, stating that his actions during their course of employment \u201camounted to sexual discrimination and sexual harassment,\u201d which would be considered a violation of their civil rights.<\/p>\n

The three women stated that Mize \u201cpinched\u201d them during the 2021-2022 school year at Mesa Alta Junior High. They are Dannette Lopez, vice principal at the time; Margaret Lefebre, registrar; and Holly Zuliga-Alderete, a math teacher.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 27, 2023, states that all three women were \u201cintentionally touched\u201d in a \u201crude, insolent or angry manner\u201d when they were \u201cpinched,\u201d causing injury.<\/p>\n

The board of education was named in the suit for failing \u201cto act appropriately to prevent injury\u201d to the women and allowing \u201cdangerous conditions to persist\u201d on the school\u2019s campus. It also was alleged the district left the women \u201cparticularly exposed and vulnerable\u201d to actions made by Mize, when it \u201cshould have known of Defendant Mize\u2019s improper actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Appel, the attorney for Mize, argued that Mize\u2019s actions of \u201cpinching\u201d the women \u201con the inner arm\u201d occurred under the \u201cscope of duty\u201d of his employment as principal of the middle school and that \u201cpublic employees acting within the scope of duty are immune from suit tort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appel further states in the motion that Mize denies that he \u201con several separate occasions pinched each of the plaintiffs on the inner arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Mize \u201cpled (sic) guilty to battery on the plaintiffs,\u201d according to court documents, and Frank Davis and Shellie Patscheck, attorneys for the women, state in a response to his motion, that the \u201cdenial is suspect and appears to have been manufactured for the purpose of litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appel\u2019s motion further states that the fact that the \u201cbatteries\u201d happened on school grounds does not allow for a complaint against Mize, because it alleges \u201cthat Mize himself was the dangerous condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appel also wrote in the motion that the case against Mize should be dismissed because the women did not seek compensation through Title VII, which allows for lawsuits to be brought against \u201can individual employer or supervisor,\u201d but not against an individual employee, according to Hunt v. Central Consolidate School District and Arthur v. Bloomfield School District.<\/p>\n

Davis and Patscheck argued that Mize cannot seek immunity, because the complaint was filed under the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, \u201cwhich waives any immunity Defendant Mize might otherwise enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

David and Patscheck also stated that Mize\u2019s \u201cconduct against them was willful, wanton and\/or reckless,\u201d and the New Mexico Constitution has \u201cstrong public policy\u201d that \u201cprohibits sex discrimination in the workplace,\u201d yet they were \u201csubjected to consistent and pervasive unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate touching, and a hostile work environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

They argue all of this was perpetrated by Mize, who was their direct supervisor and could take \u201cdisciplinary action against school employees,\u201d principal of the school.<\/p>\n

In the email to the Tri-City Record,<\/em> Mize also commented on this case stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other articles weren\u2019t fact either, minus the truth of me accepting a plea agreement. If your IPRA request to the school was accurate, you would have received a detailed report from the victims themselves to the school, disproving their story by their own original words.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Judge Sarah Weaver has set a scheduling conference for 9:30 a.m. Sept. 18 to consider Mize\u2019s motion to dismiss, and the plaintiff\u2019s response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother sued after student was \u2018smacked\u2019; a suit alleging that staff were pinched continues in court Mesa Alta Middle School principal Colin Mize has had multiple complaints filed against him, one of which prompted a criminal investigation. One case was settled out of court and a second remains on the docket in the 11th Judicial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79202,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26044\/revisions\/79202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26044"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}