Work Compensation ClaimsLisa Potts, the nursery school teacher who risked her own life to save the lives of her young students, was awarded £49,000 for her injuries in the attack that left her arm permanently disabled. The attack took place four years ago at St. Luke's Church of England School in Wolverhampton in the Blackenhall area.
On the fateful day, at about 3 pm, students were having a teddy bears' picnic while parents waited outside to collect their children. Balbinder Bains waited in the parking lot for his child when he noticed a man idling in the bushes. Before he knew what was happening the man, carrying a machete, started slashing at people.
A parent was injured at the door trying to stop the crazed man. Four adults and three children were injured in the attack. Potts' bravery in protecting her charges from the maniac earned her a spot on the Queen's birthday honours list and she was awarded the George Medal for bravery.
Medals and bravery notwithstanding, the compensation was a disappointment for Potts who has had to leave teaching and suffers severe scarring, depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome. The compensation packet was broken down to £250 for the severe scarring, £750 for the partial loss of grip on her arm, £20,000 for permanent mental disorder and £28,000 for loss of earnings. She had earlier received in addition an interim payment of £8000. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (Cica) works on a tariff system that some feel is outdated. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Potts' union, Unison, is one of them. He is not pleased with the small settlement. In a BBC article he said, "She has been let down by a tariff system that is fatally flawed and cannot reflect the pain and suffering that she has gone through. I don't think that the level of compensation is adequate or fair."
Horret Irving Campbell, the man who attacked Potts and the others at the school was charged with seven acts of attempted murder and in March 1997 was sentenced to a secure mental hospital for an indefinite period of time. He was suffering from severe schizophrenia at the time of the attack.
Potts, who has had three operations on her arm that was nearly severed from her body, still says that she has little feeling in the arm. She told the BBC, "What I struggle with most is not what happened to me but that I saw children being severed across the face, and most days I do think about it".
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