Understanding the Liability Issues Facing Today's Educators

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Teachers and the LawSession Two

• Understanding the Liability Issues Facing Today's
  Educators
• February 19th,
• Brown Bag Lunch
• The Curtis Guild School

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At a Glance

• 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?

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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.

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

• 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 min 10 min 10 min 5 min
5
Chalk Talk Protocol

• Youll 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.

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Legal Fundamentals

• THE TEST (based on Sheehan)
• You have to prove that the person that you are
  suing has
• Duty of Care for the injured party.
• Negligence Care was not adequate- was the
  teacher reasonably prudent ?
• Cause was negligence carelessness caused
  injury.
• 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.

• Paul D. Coverdell Teacher Protection Act (Part
  of NCLB)
• As long as the teacher is acting within the
  scope of the teachers employment or
  responsibilities to a school they CANNOT be held
  liable. Even when the actions are carried out
  infurtherance 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.

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Scenario 1

• Description

• Probable Outcome

• 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.
• Pauls 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.

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Scenario 2

• Description

• Probable Outcome

• During recess time a 3rd grader named Alicia
  breaks her leg after jumping off a
  merry-go-round.
• Alicias 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 Alicias
  negligence to be equal to the schools and thus
  her compensation was reduced by 50.

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Write Your Own

• Description

• Probable Outcome

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Wrap-Up Questions

• Questions?
• Please take a moment to complete the feedback
  form provided.
• Thank you for participating!