A trial over a botched chemistry class experiment that badly burned a high school student began Monday with a graphic description of the fireball that melted his ears.
Alonzo Yanes was only 16 when his teacher, Anna Poole, made a critical mistake while conducting a “rainbow experiment” at the Beacon School in 2014 to demonstrate how mineral salts produce multicolored flames when burned. Poole poured a gallon container of methanol straight onto petri dishes that had just been on fire.
The ensuing chemical reaction created a flame that whipped into the methanol jug, creating a fireball like a “blowtorch,” Yanes’s attorney Ben Rubinowitz said in opening statements in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“The injuries are great and are so significant, this is too much for any child to take,” Rubinowitz said, describing Yanes rolling on the classroom floor screaming “help me!”
“He is completely without fault. He lost his face at 16 years and for the rest of his life Alonzo Yanes is going to wonder, ‘What would I have looked like if I hadn’t been scarred?’ Everywhere he goes people will ask, ‘What happened to you?'”
The attorney said the city was liable for negligence before, during and after the tragedy. The trial is expected to last around four weeks.
Last month, two other students who suffered much less severe injuries from the experiment at the elite Upper West Side high school received a settlement over $1 million.
Yanes, who was not in the courtroom, is expected to testify. He underwent extreme and painful skin grafts that removed parts of his skull and legs, leaving 50% of his body altered by the incident, according to his attorney. He spent five months in hospitals receiving treatment.
When he returned to school he wore special bandages covering his burns. Bullies nicknamed Yanes “the burn kid,” Rubinowitz said.
The student’s mother Yvonne Yanes, who sued the city on his behalf, attended the trial.
Poole, who is also expected to take the stand, sat in the courtroom, her hands trembling.
City attorney Mark Mixson argued to the jury that the fireball was a “freak accident” and not the result of negligence. He disputed Rubinowitz’s account of events leading up to the fireball, though an Education Department investigation determined Poole had mishandled the chemicals.
Poole, Mixson said, was an accomplished and respected teacher who followed the necessary guidelines.
“There was a lightning strike that was an accident that no one could have prepared for,” Mixson said.
