3.  Harm Inflicted by School Employees or Officials

Where a school employee inflicts harm on a student, that act may be viewed as a constitutional violation.  If so, supervisory officials and school boards may be liable under the Constitution if they allowed a practice or policy of deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of students and the policy or practice caused the harm.

These scenarios usually involve the sexual assault or physical injury of a student by a teacher, although some cases address student on student harm. Typically, school officials are held legally responsible where they have received several complaints about inappropriate or dangerous acts and responded inadequately, i.e. they took no action, or they suppressed or concealed the complaints.

Workers Compensation

Injury to students or school personnel presents the potential that school districts

may face liability under worker’s compensation statutes.

Generally, injury on the job will be compensable if the likelihood of injury was increased by employment, either due to the nature of the job or because of the susceptibility to injury associated with the work environment. Schools have been held liable in a variety of circumstances, including, for example, where a teacher was required to accept a student with known violent and aggressive tendencies into the teacher’s class despite his or her objections, where a teacher attempted to restrain a violent student, where a teacher was asked to chaperone a school athletic event without proper training, and where a teacher was assaulted by a member of a student’s family.

This article is an excerpt from "School Safety and Youth Violence: A Legal Primer." Download the complete text at http://hamfish.org/
framework/frameworks/primer.pdf.

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• School personnel should exercise the same degree of care as a reasonably prudent parent in the supervision of students.
  
• School personnel will be liable where they can reasonably be expected to foresee the potential danger of a situation resulting in injury to a student, regardless of whether they actually did or not.
  
• A higher standard of care may be expected during activities with a higher foreseeable level of risk, such as field trips, excursions involving students, laboratories, physical education classes, and contact sports.
  
• All school personnel have a responsibility to ensure that school buildings and grounds are safe for student use.
  
• School officials should provide supervision for students on school grounds or at school related activities, before and after the school day.
  
• Unacceptable behavior by teachers and administrators should be clearly stated in a school or district policy with restrictions on any actions that may be considered assault and/or battery or intended to cause emotional harm, especially in cases involving physical punishment.
  
• Schools should develop a culture and set of values that place a high premium on respect for the dignity of every individual involved in the school community and require workshops and seminars periodically to ensure that school personnel are aware of safety and liability issues.
  
• Schools must keep personal information regarding students confidential except where sharing that information is required by law, but school officials must operate in good faith with no intent to harm a student’s reputation.
  
• Board of education members may be held liable for their individual acts that result in the violation of a student’s rights.