What the Liability!
Lawfully responsible
What is Liable?
The relative cause of an incident or the cause of an injury. In terms of school injuries, usually negligence.
What is Proximate cause?
The party that won, and therefore is awarded damages (sometimes) during a court case.
What is Prevailing Party?
When a person's negligence is a factor that contributes to one's loss or injury
What is Contributory Negligence?
When a person suffers personal emotional losses due to a school official’s actions
What is Personal Humiliation?
In a similar situation, the amount of care an ordinary teacher would use
What is Reasonable care?
In a similar situation, the degree of care an educator would use based on one’s positional duties
What is Duty of care?
Actions that were purposefully taken by a school official that resulted in the harming of a student. Examples include negligent behaviors and assaults
What is Willful Conduct?
If it can be proved that a school official caused the problem, school districts are required to compensatory damages when the school official’s actions caused a child psychological damages
What is Mental Anguish and Suffering?
In some states, school districts can be held liable if they hire someone who shows evidence that they will harm a child’s education in some way. For example, hiring a teacher that has a criminal record for sexual assault
What is Negligent Hiring?
The compensation passing what would be normal compensation to cover the loss of an injured individual, as its purpose is to punish the offender
What is Punitive damages?
If a school official damages a person’s reputation without cause they can be held liable for civil damages. For example, if a student is suspended for doing drugs, but no evidence shows the students was doing drugs, the school can be held liable since this act causes colleges to be turned away
What is Impairment of Reputation?
The minimum damages awarded to an individual in a situation where they have not endured a substantial injury or loss
What is Nominal damages?
The professional negligence of an educator who has failed to provide services that can reasonably be expected from an educator
What is Educational Malpractice?
This idea applies to the government not being able to be sued when a teacher is negligent because money for education should not be diverted to pay off a lawsuit; however, this idea is starting to expand to allow teachers to not be sued for classroom disputes that could not be stopped with reasonable supervision
What is Sovereign Immunity?
The standard stating that teachers cannot be held liable for civil damages a person may incur due to their actions as long as those actions do not violate a person’s constitutional rights as determined by what a reasonable person would do
What is Good Faith Standard?
A section of the title 42 of the U.S. Code which holds a person liable for depriving another person of rights, privileges, or immunities that are protected by the U.S. Constitution
What is Section 1983?
The case where a student was hurt while skateboarding on school grounds at 5:30 pm, the student’s parents tried suing the school for negligence. The court, however, decided that since no school-related functions were being held at the school at the time the school could not be found negligent. It costs too much to always have someone supervising the school, so schools are only required to have supervision during school hours and school-related functions.
What is Bartell vs. Palos Verdes Peninsula School District?
The court case where a girl was not given proper due process when being placed into the school’s special education program. As a result, she was misdiagnosed, and her education and behavior began to suffer. The Montana Supreme Court decided the school was negligent by not doing the proper testing and following the proper guidelines when diagnosing the girl as mentally retarded
What is BM vs. State of Montana?
The court case where a young girl was injured after a teacher left her and nineteen other girls without supervision outside and during that time period a group of boys playing baseball threw stones at the girls, and one stone hit the girl, Margret, in the eye thus resulting in a serious injury and causing the parents to sue the school. The court ruled that the did not exercise reasonable care to protect the students and so the school was liable.
What is Sheehan v. St. Peter's Catholic School?
his case shows that schools cannot be held liable when the risk of an action is known. A teacher could not receive any compensatory damages following injuries received at a donkey basketball game because she was informed of the risks the donkeys posed before she played, and she decided to play anyway.
What is Arbegast vs. Board of Education of South New Berlin?
This case decided that responsibility of an accident also falls on students depending on their maturity level. When a 17-year-old girl was hurt during her shop class because she failed to follow safety procedures while handling saws, the teacher could not be found liable for the girl’s fingers being cut off. The teacher gave lessons on shop safety, gave the students a test on shop safety, and had watched this student practice safety procedures multiple times. In this case, the teacher provided adequate supervision and had no way of knowing the students would hurt herself.
What is Miles vs. School District No. 138 of Cheyenne County?
A common law theory stating that since the state and its agencies are sovereign, they cannot be sued without their consent and should not be held liable for the negligence of their employees
What is Governmental Immunity?
The court case where a boy was injured whiling playing basketball when he jumped and his head collided with another student's head and the father sued. The court ruled that even a lack of supervision was not the proximate cause of the injury and so the school was not liable.
What is Kaufman v. City of New York?
The court case where while a substitute left a classroom unattended a student sexually assaulted another student behind a movable chalkboard. The court ruled that the sub was liable as she was negligent and did not provide proper supervision of the classroom when she left it for 10+ minutes thus breached her contract.
What is Collins v. School Board of Broward County?