Claim against Cemex tossed in girl’s death

Firm not negligent in bullying victim’s fatal fall, judge says.

LAKELAND — A judge has thrown out a portion of a lawsuit against Cemex Construction that alleged the company was negligent by not properly securing abandoned grounds where 12-yearold Rebecca Sedwick fell to her death after being repeatedly bullied.

Cemex Construction, which owns the property and cement silo that Rebecca fell or jumped from, was not at fault, wrote Circuit Judge John Radabaugh.

“There are no allegations that there existed a trap, a hidden condition or an otherwise unreasonably dangerous condition on the property that caused the decedent’s injuries,” Radabaugh wrote in a recent decision.

Rebecca’s mother, Tri- cia Norman, filed the lawsuit against Cemex and the Polk County School Board in August.

In the lawsuit, Matt Morgan, Norman’s lawyer, wrote that the fence around the site was in disrepair and had many openings allowing unrestricted access.

The lawsuit against the Polk County School Board remains.

Mediation between the school board and a lawyer for Norman, David Henry of Morgan & Morgan, is scheduled for June 24. The lawsuit claims the board was negligent in its supervision and discipline of one of Rebecca’s classmates, ultimately leading to her death.

Rebecca jumped or fell to her death from the abandoned silo in Lakeland on Sept. 9, 2013. The Polk County Sheriff ’s Office and Rebecca’s family blame bullying and cyberbullying by former classmates at Crystal Lake Middle School for the death. Norman told Polk sheriff ’s deputies she attempted sever- al times to report to the school that Rebecca was being bullied, especially after things escalated in 2012 when Rebecca was “jumped” at school by several girls.

The Sheriff ’s Office charged Guadalupe Shaw and Katelyn Roman, then 14 and 12, respectively, with felony aggravated stalking. But the State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the girls. Their lawyers said prosecutors made the decision because of a lack of evidence.