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No child should think that all learning must take place within the school’s walls. By the same token, the responsibility of caring for a child gets shared by the child’s parents and the faculty members of the child’s school. So, what can a parent do if a son or daughter gets injured, while taking part in a school-sponsored activity?
Determine if or how someone was negligent
Four different groups of people should be studied, in order to determine if or how someone was negligent. Included in one of those four groups are the teachers, the principals, the counselors and the members of the school board. Each of educators and those with status in the School District must be held responsible for protecting students from reasonably foreseeable risks.
In order to ascertain the degree that any one of those same people might have demonstrated negligence, four questions need to be asked and answered. Did any person on that list have a duty of care towards the young men and women at their institution of learning? Did any single one of them breach that same duty? Did a student suffer damages? Were those damages caused by the failure of the negligent adult to exercise his or her duty of care?
Additional factors that would be considered
If the evidence suggested that all four of those questions had a “yes” answer, then the person who had breached his or her duty of care could be charged in lawsuit. The parents would need to decide if they wanted to make and pursue that such a charge. That would entail hiring a lawyer.
If the case got tried in a court of law, specific factors would be studied. By studying such factors, the court could better judge the fairness of supporting the charges that had been made by the parents. Those factors would aid in a determination of what might have been a reasonable foreseeable risk, at the time of the accident.
What was the students’ age? How many members of the student-population were being supervised at that specific time? What activity was taking place at that same time? What proportion of the students had chosen to engage in that same activity?
Finally, the court would look more closely at where the accident occurred. No one would question the assumption that a risky location has more accidents than one that seems to be fairly risk-free. A smart adult should heighten his or her alertness in a risky location.
The court would check to see if the accident occurred in spot that could be called a risk-source. A typical schoolyard contains one or more of such sources. They include objects, such as playground equipment, poorly-maintained grounds and even the familiar yellow buses. A teacher/staff could also be a risk-source, if he or she had failed to provide an adequate level of supervision. It is important to consult with a Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie, if a child has been injured at school.