Understanding the Liability Issues Facing Today's Educators

February 19th,

Brown Bag Lunch

The Curtis Guild School

• Teacher indicated very high interest in this topic on the survey

• Legal reference for this topic involves the No Child Left Behind Act (specifically the Teacher Liability Protection Act)

• Essential Questions:• When am I liable as a teacher?• When is my school liable?• Can I be sued?

Looking Back at our survey results for items involving liability

•As a group, we answered incorrectly 45% of the time.

•On average, we are about as unsure as we are correct on this topic.

•This area is not as consistent as Student Rights. In some questions, we did excellently as a group, while in others we did poorly.

• Chalk Talk Protocol: What are your instincts?

• Legal Fundamentals of this Topic: NCLB, Sheehan, Mancha

• You be the judge:• Scenario 1• Scenario 2• Write your own scenario

• Wrap Up, Questions, Feedback

10 min

5 min

10 min10 min10 min

5 min

Pre-work: Ch. 5, Teachers and the Law. Schimmel

You’ll notice there are a few papers posted throughout the room with the following questions:Why do some refer to current times as the “lawsuit

era” and what does that mean for teachers?What aspects of being a teacher make you nervous

about your legal liabilities?How is the way you manage and discipline students

affected by a fear of legal liability?Please take the next few minutes to think about

these questions and respond to them with the marker provided.

This is a silent, non-speaking activity.

Paul D. Coverdell Teacher Protection Act (Part of NCLB) As long as the teacher is “acting within the scope of the teacher’s

employment or responsibilities to a school” they CANNOT be held liable. Even when the actions are “carried out in…furtherance of efforts to control, discipline, expel, or suspend a student or maintain order or control in the classroom or school.”

The only exception is if the conduct of the teacher is criminal.Also, most union contracts include extensive liability

insurance coverage.

THE “TEST” (based on Sheehan)

You have to prove that the person that you are suing has:1. Duty of Care for the

injured party.2. Negligence – Care was not

adequate- was the teacher “reasonably prudent ?”

3. Cause was negligence – carelessness caused injury.

4. Injury has occurred that is serious.

A Guide for Administrators/Teachers when assessing the risk: (based on Mancha) Foresee-ability of injury Likelihood of injury Magnitude of the burden of

guarding against the injury Consequence of placing that

burden on teachers.

In a first grade P.E. class, Paul is injured when bumping heads with another student during a basketball game. The teacher was talking to a parent at the time and had her back turned.

Paul’s parents sued, believing that the school failed to supervise the game properly.

Is the school liable?

Kaufman V. City of New York, 214 N.Y.S. 2d 767 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1961)

The court ruled in favor of the school on the basis that even if the teacher was being negligent, is not definite that the lack of supervision caused the accident.

Probable Outcome

During recess time a 3rd grader named Alicia breaks her leg after jumping off a merry-go-round.

Alicia’s parents sue the school, alleging that the recess supervisors were negligent.

Is the school liable?

Rollins V. Concordia Parish Sch. Brd., 465 So.2d 213 (La. App. 1985)

This case calls into play the idea of contributory negligence since Alicia was also negligent in jumping off the moving play equipment.

States have different laws regarding comparative negligence which attempts to assess what portion of the negligence belongs to each party.

In this case the court determined Alicia’s negligence to be equal to the school’s and thus her compensation was reduced by 50%.

Probable Outcome

Probable Outcome

Questions?

Please take a moment to complete the feedback form provided.

Thank you for participating!