BENNINGTON — A mother and her son have filed a lawsuit against the Career Development Center over an injury the child sustained last year while operating a wood-splitter.

Tyler Crane and his mother, Linda Allard, filed the suit Aug. 30 in Bennington Superior Court Civil Division against the Southwest Vermont Regional Technical School District and the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center.

According to the complaint, filed on behalf of Crane and Allard by Bennington attorney David F. Silver, of Barr, Sternberg, Moss, Lawrence, & Silver, on March 1, 2010, Crane was a student at the CDC. Seventeen years old the time, Crane was in a class under the supervision of CDC instructors David Dence and Dwayne Metcalf.

Silver wrote that Dence and Metcalf knew or should have known that Crane had insufficient training or experience with a wood-splitter but “… they assigned him the most dangerous task: That of manually placing each piece of wood on the wood-splitter, thereby exposing his hand to possible injury from the wood-splitter’s blade.”

The complaint alleges that another poorly trained student was operating the machine, and that Crane’s hand came between the wood and the blade, severely injuring it.

Silver said in an interview that Crane’s middle finger had to be amputated, and that he’s lost some use of the hand.

The suit alleges that Dence and Metcalf were not properly trained

to supervise minors in such a fashion, and that the CDC is responsible for their negligence.

“We are hoping the school does the right thing and takes responsibility for their part in this,” Silver said. He said the suit was filed because his clients and the school could not agree on what compensation there should be, if any. He said he and his clients will take the matter to the community through the jury system if need be.

A response was filed Sept. 9 by Pietro J. Lynn, of the Burlington firm Lynn, Lynn, & Blackman, P.C., denying the allegations of negligence against its client, the CDC, and asserting a number of legal defenses, mainly ones that bar a municipal entity such as a school from being sued over certain matters. Similar arguments were made for Dence and Metcalf, as employees of the school.

“Our firm has investigated this matter, and we are convinced that the CDC and all of its employees acted reasonably in all respects,” said Lynn.