Bad Teacher?
Who's to Blame?
Show Me the Money
Can't Touch This
100
The belief that a teacher will not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights which a reasonable person knows.
What is Good Faith Standard?
100
The term for an injury caused by one's own negligence. An example is when a student assembled a mechanism to make him "fly" during a presentation of Peter Pan. (Penn Harris Madison School Corp. V. Howard, 86 N.E. 2d 1190 (Ind. 2007).
What is Contributory Negligence?
100
An award, usually monitory, for actual losses as a result fo the defendant's negligence.
What is Compensatory Damages?
100
Even though school districts send these home for parents to sign, if a student is injured during a sporting event or field trip, parents can still sue but may share in the negligence.
What is a waiver or release?
200
Teachers can be sued for slander if they have maliciously spread false gossip about a student, also known as...
What is Impairment of Reputation?
200
In this situation, a teacher uses the degree of care with ordinary prudence under like circumstances. In the case of Gibbons v. Orleans Parish School Board, the court found the supervision at the time "totally inadequate and virtually impossible".(Gibbons v. Orleans Parish Sch. Bd., 391 So.2d 976 (La. App. 1980)).
What is Reasonable Care?
200
A small award given to a plaintiff that has been wronged but cannot show actual damages.
What is Nominal Damages?
200
This prohibits individuals from suing states under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
What is Sovereign Immunity?
300
Legal action indicating intellectual or psychological neglect of a student by a teacher.
What is Educational Malpractice?
300
What must a student prove to hold a teacher liable for an injury? For example, a case in Maryland was decided for the plaintiff when counselors at the school were held accountable for a student's suicide. Had they informed the Dad, he may have been able to intervene and stop the suicide (i.e., Eisel v. Bd. of Educ. of Montgomery County, 597 A.2d 447 (Md. 1991)).
What is duty of care?
300
This is awarded as punishment for the defendant for malice, fraud and reckless disregard for constitutional rights and safety of another person.
What is Punitive damages?
300
A common-law theory that holds the state and its agencies sovereign so that they cannot be sued without their consent and not be liable for the negligence of their employees. Students cannot sue the school district but can sue individual teachers for negligence. (Zimmer-Rubert v. Board of Educ. of Baltimore County, 409 Md. 200 (2009) ($100,000 waiver of immunity held to apply to all claims).
What is Governmental Immunity?
400
Also known as "good and just cause". A teacher can be dismissed for this. One example is a case in which a tenured teacher was fired for sarcastic comments to a student in regards to a paper on suicide. The superintendent believed the teacher was no longer a effective role model and did not build the self-esteem of the students. (Sheldon Community Sch. Dist. v. Lundblad, 528 N. E. 2d 583 (Ohio 1968).
What is Willful Misconduct?
400
This is when a school retains or hires a an employee that they know or should know is unfit for the position and puts others in danger of being harmed. Hiring or retaining a known or convicted sexual predator to work in a school setting for example. (Sch. Bd. of Orange County v. Coffey, 524 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. App. 1988)).
What is Negligent Hiring?
400
Damages awarded when a student is deprived of their constitutional rights and may include mental anguish and suffering will be assessed in two ways.
What is punitive damages, to punish or deter school officials or compensatory damages for actual injury?
400
The winners of a court case.
What is the Prevailing Party?
500
This law is brought in when a teacher is so bad, it "shocks the conscience". Teachers in these instances have violated a student's right to equal protection.
What is Section 1983?
500
Published false and malicious statements written to injure a person's reputation.
What is libel?
500
This allows a judge or jury to compare the negligence of the plaintiff and the defendant in causing the injury and reducing the award to the plaintiff according to their negligence. This reduces the amount of damages the defendant A court case in which a nine-year-old broke her leg jumping off of a merry-go-round compared the negligence of the student to that of the school board. They found the student to be equally responsible and therefore awarded 50 percent. (Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts 471, Note 30 (West 1988); 57B Am. Jur.@d Negligence 1140 (1989)).
What is Comparative Negligence?
500
Is negligence that has happened before another occurrence, such as, a door being left unlocked and a teacher being assaulted by an intruder. (Carole A. v. City of New York, 565 N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dept. 1991).
What is Proximate Cause?
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