A former Montoursville High School student who suffered severe head and bodily injuries from a fall while cleaning a trail at Jacoby Falls in the Loyalsock State Forest on Oct. 4, 2023, is a plaintiff with his mother in a federal lawsuit filed against the school district and the teacher who was acting as a “chaperone” that day.

Aiden Wallace and his mother Jessica Kepler are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court. Wallace, who is now over 18, was at the time a senior in high school. The teacher, Benjamin Hepburn, was the teacher on the field trip.

The crux of the lawsuit is that the district and teacher deprived Wallace of obtaining workers’ compensation benefits to which he should have been entitled, according to the court record.

Wallace contends he suffered a workplace injury on state property for which workers’ compensation coverage should have been available under a state law that deems conservation volunteers as employees, according to the lawsuit.

Wallace was participating in a cleanup of the trail as part of a service/field trip organized by the school district. Hepburn was the alleged organizer of the trip. Wallace had participated in a similar trip the year before organized by a different teacher.

Wallace was not a recreational user of the park, but a volunteer clearing the trail and falls.

As a consequence of this “deliberate and reckless indifference, the youngster sustained injury and compensable damage, including a physical injury, brain injury, broken bones, diffuse brain injury, which resulted in emotional distress, scarring, and humiliation for which he seeks compensatory damages, attorney fees, costs, court costs, costs incurred in the administrative proceedings, interest and punitive damages,” the suit states.

According to the lawsuit, the state never produced any document or prior notice that reached the high school that its conservation volunteer status was being terminated, and that “deemed employee” status of the students would not apply, the suit states.

Defendants’ actions and omissions allegedly have violated the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and an article in the state constitution, the suit contends.

Further, the mother and son alleged the defendants’ failure to notify the Loyalsock State Forest district forester resulted in the failure to coordinate with the state forest volunteer coordinator, so the school district allegedly would be instructed in safety practices, including restriction going to the top of the falls, and areas around it, according to state forest personnel.

This would have prevented Wallace’s injury, the suit states.

Additionally, the plaintiffs contend the defendants’ policy, custom, alleged failure to train, and/or failure to issue, comply and/or enforce appropriate rules, regulations, and guidelines exhibited a “deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of students participating in such programs, such as Wallace.”

A state administrative proceeding held over the course of nearly two years and a workers’ compensation judge denied workers’ compensation benefits to Wallace because the school district allegedly did not follow Loyalsock State Forest procedures to establish that the students are deemed employees, according to the suit.

Prior to filing this lawsuit, Wallace sought an administrative remedy on Aug. 8, 2025, because the school district had failed to follow procedures allegedly created by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2018 by providing prior notice.

As such, the state denied that Wallace was a “deemed employee” for his volunteer service and an administrative law judge found in favor of the department. Plaintiffs, through their attorney, have requested a jury trial.

However, the plaintiffs argue the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania relied on a manual which was printed in 2018, or three or four years after the 2014 and 2015 agreements were entered into by the Commonwealth and the school district, respectively, to assert that the students did not qualify as forestry volunteers, the suit states.

There has not been proof that the manual was ever shared with the high school, nor was it approved by the state legislature or complied with state administrative procedures, the suit contends.

Moreover, the suit states that neither plaintiffs were given notice by the high school of the fact the high school had not provided prior and/or appropriate notice to the state forest district office prior to the cleanup, that it intended to conduct a trail cleanup of Jacoby Trail prior to Oct. 4, 2023, nor that it was acting without authorization from the state DCNR during the service trip that day.