Three elementary teachers are assigned to supervise the children who are playing on the playground. There are approximately 100 children engaged in a number of playground activities. Since these teachers do not have much opportunity to chat with each other during the school day, all of them decide to bring chairs to the playground and engage in conversation while observing the children. During this time, one child sustains a serious injury when he is struck by a rock thrown by another student.
1. What is the legal issue in this situation?
2. Who is responsible for this incident?
3. Can all three teachers be held liable? Why or why not?
4. How do you think the court will rule in this case? Give a rationale for your response.
5. Develop a set of guidelines regarding playground supervision.
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Laura will respond to this case study
ReplyDelete1. All school personnel have the responsibility to ensure to the fullest extent possible that the school playground is safe for all of the children. If the recess paras were sitting together and having a conversation they can not possible assure that they can see all of the children throughout the playground, therefore they can not assure the safety of all the children.
ReplyDelete2. All three of the recess paras will be held responsible for the incident because they were not watching the children, they were sitting and chatting.
3. I believe that all of them can be held liable because they are all responsible for the safety of the children and are all assigned this position as the recess para.
4. I think that the school will be found responsible and will need to cover all of the medical expenses of the injured child.
5. (a)The playground layout should be divided into three sections.
(b)Each recess para should position themselves in their designated location to monitor the children in their designated area.
(c)Each recess para should have a building key and a walkie-talkie to assure adequate contact with the staff indoors and easy accessibility in the event of an emergency.
1. Negligence would be the legal issue in this case.
ReplyDelete2. The assigned teachers are directly responsible for the supervision of the students during recess. The principal would vicariously be implicated.
3. Yes, since the playground duties were assigned to all three as a group and not just individual students to specific teachers.
4. I believe that the courts will rule in favor of the child since the standard of care did not match the level of care due to the students which resulted in a breach of duty which most likely resulted in the injury. This will most likely result in compensatory and punitive damages.
5. I agree with Laura that the playground should be divided into sectors; teachers should be assigned specific sectors and provided with radios to communicate with key personnel that can provide emergency support or relief.
I agree with Carl and Laura on this issue. The teachers would be held responsible. All three teachers should be held liable. The teachers on duty have the responsiblity to ensure the safety of all the children. In order to watch the safety of the children they would need to be stationed in different areas so that all children would be in direct line of site of at least on recess teacher at all times. The principal would also be liable as he/she is directly responsible for the supervision of staff. The administrator must ensure that those in charge of supervising children are doing their job. I agree with Laura on how should would divide the playground into different sections to make sure the children are visible at all times.
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