|  from
a known suspect exists, and the warning must be specific and
complete.
Specific Measures
No
specific measures are required of schools to enhance safety
on school grounds. Courts are reluctant to impose such
requirements and consequently have not required schools provide
security officers, conduct routine searches or adopt supervisory
programs. Constant supervision is also not required.
Constitutional
Claims
American
courts are very reluctant to extend constitutional protection
to situations covered by state civil liability rules.
When they do so, however, constitutional claims will rest
on three general theories of school liability, very similar
to those outlined above:
1)
Whether there is a “special relationship” creating a duty
to protect students from harm;
2) Whether schools “created the danger” of harm; and
3) Whether school policies reflected a “deliberate indifference”
to the constitutional rights of students.
1.
Special Relationship
Where
a private person, an uninvited guest at the school, or another
student causes the harm to a student, the school is not liable
for failing to protect students from each other or from the
private actions of another person. The Constitution does not
require the state (a school) to protect citizens from each
other (students), except where the state has taken custody
of the individual, such as in the case of prisoners or mental
patients.
In
addition, school attendance, while compulsory, does not create
a special relationship that requires a school to shoulder
responsibility for the entire |
|
personal lives of students, or for any harm that might befall
them. Ultimately, parents retain custody and the primary responsibility
for children and their well being. In short, compulsory
attendance laws do not create a custodial relationship between
a school and a student that imposes a duty upon the school
to protect the student from harm.
| "A
school may be liable under the Constitution for harm
to a student by a private actor or employee, if the
school’s actions “created” the danger of possible harm.” |
2.
State Created Danger
A
school may be liable under the Constitution for harm to a
student by a private actor or employee, if the school’s actions
“created” the danger of possible harm. Generally, liability
will depend on several factors:
1)
The environment created by the school must be dangerous;
2) The school officials must know it is dangerous; and
3) School officials must have used their authority to create
an opportunity that otherwise did not exist for the crime
to occur.
Mere
inaction is not sufficient. A claim of constitutional
liability will fail absent some proof that actions by the
school caused the danger and the possibility of harm.
Accordingly, schools have not been held liable constitutionally
in a variety of circumstances, such as:
§
Where school officials received complaints that a teacher
was sexually involved with students and did not discipline
the teacher,
§ Where students were killed by random shooting at a
school dance,
§ Where a student was killed by a non-student trespasser,
§ Where the school knew of the violent propensities of
a student who later killed a fellow classmate.
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