Florida family files lawsuit against school district after mom killed by lightning

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. - A new lawsuit accuses the Seminole County School Board and the Seminole County Board of Commissioners of negligence.

The man who filed it says the District didn’t provide enough protection outside Keeth Elementary and contributed to his wife’s death by a lightning strike.

Andrew Tedesco says his wife, Nicole, was waiting for their daughters outside Keeth Elementary School. As 10-year-old Ava and 8-year-old Gia walked up, the family was hit by lightning. The lawsuit says the School Board and Board of County Commissioners are responsible for maintaining a safe environment on school property and says lightning was a foreseeable risk.

"The school board," the lawsuit claims, "makes parents wait outside for their children during dismissal" where "no protection from the elements is available."

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FOX 35 talked with two lightning strike experts from the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) about how to stay safe from lightning.

Melissa Watson, a Meteorologist at the NWS in Melbourne, says Florida is the United States's lightning capital, and Central Florida has more lightning strikes than any other part of the state. Aaron Treadway, the NWS Severe Program Manager, said the same thing.

"There is no safe place outside from lightning," said Treadway.

They both explained that if you hear thunder, you must get inside quickly.

"You want to be inside an actual, sturdy building that has the lighting and the indoor plumbing. That way, if the lightning does strike that building, it has something to follow to ground, and leaving you safe inside," said Watson.

They said a car can keep you safe if you can’t get into a building.

"If the lightning strikes your car, it's going to kind of act like that metal cage around you. And again, you might get a minor injury if your arm is on the door or something like that, but the vast majority of the strikes are going to go through the metal body of the car down around you," said Treadway.

Last year, NOAA said lightning strikes in the U.S. killed 13 people, and four of them were in Florida. Four more Floridians – 19 Americans total – died in lightning strikes in 2022. Nicole was one of them.

FOX 35 News reached out to the  Tedesco family and the attorneys involved in the lawsuit but didn’t hear back when this story was published. The school board sent FOX 35 to the school district, which said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The Board of County Commissioners said the same thing.