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Volume
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| In this Issue: Feature article: "School Liability- A Legal Primer (Part one of four parts) |
Generally, schools cannot guarantee safety for all students or teachers while at school. Yet, schools do have a duty to provide reasonable supervision of students and maintain the safety of the school grounds, especially since students are required to be at school under compulsory attendance rules. Acts of violence involving schools may place the school, its administrators or governing body at risk of legal liability. This liability may arise from a variety of circumstances and may depend on actions taken (or not taken) by the school itself. Schools may be liable not only for civil claims such as negligence, but claims asserting violation of a student’s constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (guaranteeing due process and equal protection) and a variety of civil rights claims. This article outlines the school’s potential for liability under civil or constitutional claims when violence occurs. |
Civil Liability School districts face potential liability for the violent acts of students or non-students where they fail to: 1)
Supervise a specific area at school where prior instances of violence
occurred, |
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The Hamilton Fish Institute is administered by The George Washington University Institute for Education Policy Studies, Graduate School of Education and Human Development |
Glenn
to Lead Hamilton Fish Institute
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 The
Hamilton Fish Institute in the Graduate School of Education
and Human Development recently named Beverly Caffee Glenn its
new director. Hamilton Fish is a national resource for the research
and development of school violence prevention strategies. Glenn
joins the institute after serving three years as the director
for Human and Civil Rights at the National Education Association,
where she supervised a unit devoted to safe schools work."I come to the institute with a deep respect for the work done by its expert staff," says Glenn. "I envision Hamilton Fish becoming the preeminent organization for technical assistance to schools, national associations, and government agencies in this arena. Additionally, the institute and its consortium of universities will continue to provide policy analysis, research, and evaluation that improves policy decisions supportive of safe schools and communities." |
The
Institute, founded in 1997, works with a consortium of seven
universities to develop and test violence prevention strategies.
Members include Syracuse University, Florida State University,
Morehouse School of Medicine, Eastern Kentucky University,
Massachusetts Mental Health Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
and the University of Oregon. The consortium has expertise
in adolescent violence, criminology, law enforcement, substance
abuse, juvenile justice, gangs, public health, education,
behavior disorders, social skills development, and prevention
programs. Glenn is the former dean of the School of Education at Howard University and former senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University. She has a BS in mathematics with a minor in chemistry from Morgan State University. She received a master's degree in curriculum development from The Catholic University of America and a doctorate in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University.  |
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Tel: 202 496 2200
Fax: 202 496 6244
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