Schools
Beacon Student Disfigured By Botched Experiment Wins $59M Verdict
The former Beacon High School student was badly burned during a 2014 science experiment. The city plans to challenge the award.
HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A former student at one of New York City's best public high schools won a massive payout in a lawsuit related to a botched science experiment that left him disfigured.
Alonzo Yanes was awarded a verdict of $59 million Monday for past and future damages related to disfiguring injuries he suffered in 2014 while attending Beacon High School, city Law Department officials confirmed. The city, which requested a verdict of $5 million, plans to challenge the award.
"The well-being of students is the top priority of the Department of Education and this chemistry experiment is no longer used in any classroom as a result of this tragic accident. While we respect the jury’s verdict, we are exploring our legal options to reduce the award to an amount that is consistent with awards that have been upheld by the courts in similar cases," Law Department Spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a statement
Find out what's happening in Midtown-Hell's Kitchenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Yanes was badly burned when teacher Anna Poole botched the "rainbow experiment," an exciting-but-dangerous demonstration that involved the burning of different mineral salts to produce flames of different colors. Poole successfully conducted the experiment once, but then produced a fireball that set Yanes on fire when performing the experiment a second time, the Daily News reported.
Jurors who spoke to the Daily News described the botched experiment as a "tragedy" and said they felt "really bad for [Yanes]."
Find out what's happening in Midtown-Hell's Kitchenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Yanes took the stand during the trial to testify on the damage that the botched experiment has caused him. Other than describing the "unreal" pain of being on fire, Yanes said that memories of the accident are "burned into my memory" and that he sometimes wakes up shaking, the Daily News reported.
Beacon High School is currently located on West 43rd Street in Hell's Kitchen, but was still at its old West 61st Street building on the Upper West Side in 2014. The school is considered one of New York City's top public high schools and is nationally ranked by the U.S. News & World Report.
The Department of Education declined to comment and referred questions to the city Law Department.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.