Generally, schools are required to show the same degree of care and supervision that a reasonably prudent parent would employ under the circumstances. The absence of supervision must have caused the violence or crime for the school to be liable.  School boards may be liable for failure to establish adequate supervisory procedures, even if their employees are not liable. This general duty of care and supervision extends to preventing a foreseeable suicide.  School officials with knowledge or notice of suicidal intent on the part of the student must exercise care to prevent the student from carrying out his/her intent.

However, even where a school may have a duty to supervise, the school will not be liable for sudden, spontaneous violence.  “Spontaneous or planned acts of violence by students on school grounds do not create liability on behalf of the school board if the school ground is otherwise well supervised.”

Previous incidents in same location

A school may have a duty to supervise a particular area of school grounds depending on whether similar acts have occurred in that area previously. The recency, frequency, location and nature of the prior crimes will be factors in determining whether the crimes establish a duty to supervise. Common sense dictates that a school will be liable if a person is injured in an area where attacks of the same type occur often.  Please note, however, that courts in some states have concluded that only similar crimes in a given location create a duty to supervise, while in other states they indicate a school may be liable where there is a generally high level of violence at a school or the school is in a high crime area.

Time and location of incident

Liability may depend on the time and location of the incident.  For example, a school may be liable for violence suffered by students while in the school parking lot, or while on their way to and from the school grounds. Normally, however, a school will not be liable where an incident occurs off-campus, during non-school hours, and is not related to school sponsored activities. For example, a school incurred no liability for the assault of a young female student after an evening of drinking at a local bar and the activity had no relation to school sponsored events, or where an elementary school student wandered from school grounds and was subsequently kidnapped and murdered. 

Attacker’s dangerous propensities

A school will be liable where it fails to safeguard other students or teachers from someone with a known propensity to violence.  School officials must warn intended and identifiable victims where serious danger

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