Jurors struggled with questions of district's negligence

It all came down to questions of negligence, but it wasn't always that easy.

After more than four hours of deliberating, a jury ruled last week that negligence was not the cause of the deaths of Ronan Middle School students Justin Benoist and Frank Nicolai III in the suit against School District #30.

Jurors had two questions to consider before placing their verdict: Was the school district negligent, and was negligence the cause of the boys' deaths? Ultimately, the jury decided that the school personnel should have done more to contact the parents, but their lack of communication did not contribute to the deaths of Benoist and Nicolai.

Some jurors were willing to talk to the Leader. They shared that — of the four hours they spent deliberating — much of that time was spent on the question of whether or not the school district was negligent.

"We went back and forth I don't know how many times," said one juror, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the case.

Another juror said that things got emotional and heated at times.

While the jury debated for hours over the question of the school district's negligence, they were unanimous that the district had no part in the boys' deaths.

"We spent five to 10 minutes on question two," said Sara Rowe of Polson. "It was unanimous that it was alcohol that killed those boys — not the school."

One juror explained that the initial vote was eight to four that the school district was not negligent at all. Those who voted that the school district was negligent had a chance to explain their stance, and after further debate, the vote was tied six to six. After another vote, it was seven to five. In civil court, eight of 12 have to come to a conclusion and eventually the jury was swayed and the verdict was placed that the school district was negligent.

In Leslie Galarneau's opinion, "the ball was dropped all the way around," between the parents and the school.

"The school needs to be way more clear on their rules and regulations," she said — and Norma Fox (the mother of Justin Benoist) should have taken further action to locate their children.

"In my opinion, the only one who did everything in his power to find one of the children was Frank Nicolai (father of Frank Nicolai III)," she said.

Some of the jurors expressed their frustration with the first question, saying that there was a lot of gray area surrounding the school district's alleged negligence.

"Yeah the school was a little bit negligent, but to answer the question it was all or nothing," said one man.

There were several factors to consider, the jurors said. For one, it was late in the afternoon when Benoist and Nicolai skipped class and school policy states that parents need to be notified by 11 a.m. Another factor to consider was the fire drill that occurred shortly after Benoist and Nicolai were found missing and that may have sidetracked then vice principal Mark Decker from placing a call to the Nicolai residence. Also, a call was made to Fox's home while she was away.

"There were some 'accountant types,'" said one juror "some real 'by-the-book, letter-of-the-law' people who argued that the school was negligent."

"One guy argued that they ran out of time and that it was the end of the [school] day and that is why the call wasn't made and in some people's mind, they completely dropped the ball," he continued.

"They should have at least tried to call both parents," said Rowe.

While the jurors may have had differing opinions, they all said it was a tragedy.

"It was a horrible incident," said Galarneau.

"It was a terrible shame about the kids. They need to find out who provided the alcohol," said another.

"It was a real eye-opener listening about the problems on that reservation," said one juror who lived on the outskirts of Lake County near Crane Mountain.

Ronan School District Superintendent Andy Holmlund said that measures are underway to make the school attendance policy "crystal clear with no discrepancies in it."

"It is a tragedy and it is sad and there is no winner in this," he said.