Learn about the 4 essential points that must be proven to hold a teacher liable for injuries in the classroom.
Now that school is back in session, you may be crossing your fingers against any calls informing you that your child needs to be picked up from school early. Usually this happens because the child is sick, but it might also happen if the child has been injured at school. In this case, you may wonder:
Can teachers be held liable for injuries that happen in the classroom?
The answer will depend upon whether or not the evidence enables you to prove all of the following four elements of negligence:
Duty: In a civilized society, people are assumed to have a duty of care not to act in ways that endanger one another. For example, we have a duty not to drive in such a reckless manner that we could cause an accident. Considering that the teacher is like the king or queen of their own little kingdom in the classroom, it is generally assumed that teachers have a duty of care to their students, to protect them from foreseeable harm.
Breach: Once the duty of care has been established, we must prove that the teacher acted in a way that breached this duty, by either their action or inaction. When establishing a breach of duty, it is typically necessary to show that a reasonably prudent person would have acted differently and been able to uphold the duty of care in the same or similar circumstances.
Causation: Next, it must be shown that the breach of duty resulted in the injury—either directly or indirectly. Again, the standard of a reasonably prudent person comes into play. Obviously a teacher cannot foresee or prevent all possible situations that could result in an injury to a child. So while a child getting hit on the head by a randomly falling ceiling tile would not be the teacher’s fault, a child running with scissors and tripping and injuring themselves or another student could be the teacher’s fault, especially if the teacher was seen to ignore or condone this behavior. After all, any reasonably prudent person should have known to keep kids from running with scissors.
Damages: Finally, we have to establish that the child suffered an injury with measurable damages. Typically, medical bills are very important for this purpose. Pain and suffering is typically calculated as a function of the medical bills, because it is assumed that the more costly an injury is to treat, the more serious it is, the longer the recovery will take, and the greater the pain and suffering experienced by the victim must be. If your child did not need medical attention for their injury, your case will be very difficult to pursue.
Need Advice about a School Injury?
If your child has been seriously injured in an accident at school, you can get advice about your options for seeking compensation by contacting expert personal injury attorney Fernando D. Vargas at [phone] now.