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Artifact #3
Sandra Galvan
A Middle school student by the named of Ray Knight, was accidentally shot while at a
friend’s house. Prior to this, the student had been suspended from school for three days due to
unexcused absences. The usual procedures required when a student is suspended is as follows:
The schools must leave a notification by calling and or leaving a message, and to mail a notice
immediately to the home. This middle school had only sent a note home with the student who
had simply discarded it without presenting it to his parents. Because the discarded note was the
only means of notification the parents were not aware of his suspension. The question at hand is
whether Ray’s parents have the grounds to file charges against the school officials. We will begin
Despite the school districts requiring the parents to be notified by both telephone and
mail the school district only sent a note home with the student. The Student then discarded the
note without presenting it severing any notice to the parents. In this case, the School distract is
negligent in being sure the note got home. For example, in the case of MASTRANGELO v. WEST
SIDE UNION HIGH SCHOOL DIST. OF MERCED COUNTY, there was a student by the name
of Elge Mastrangelo. In his chemistry class, they were performing a gunpowder experiment.
During the experiment they mistook potassium chlorate for potassium nitrate. Both of these
ingredients were kept in similar packaging and were in front of the bench where the students
were performing the experiment. Due to the mix up the ingredients exploded and blow off his
left hand and injured his left eye. It also almost destroyed his right eye and injured his right hand.
Similar to Ray’s Case Elge was not supervised properly and it could have been prevented if they
INSURANCE COMPANY. In this Case, a student named Geraldine Stations had received severe
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burns to her right hand, sides and thighs. The student received these injuries due to a faulty
burner that came from either their science teacher, Roosevelt L. Wilson or the schools supplies.
The Burner was already well known to frequently go out and malfunction, but it was used
anyway. As the judges approached the table the lighter had gone out. In order to reignite the
burner, Geraldine’s partner and another student decided to relight it. They attempted to mimic the
relighted as their teacher had however, the alcohol jug exploded and its contents burned
Geraldine who was nearby. The Science teacher Roosevelt L. Wilson was not present when this
incident occurred. He had only come to help the girls set up the project and returned to his
classroom leaving the girls with the faulty equipment. In this case, despite the teacher and many
others knowing that particular burner constantly went out it was still left with the students
unsupervised. This lack of supervision lead to injury of the students as they attempted to fix the
burner.
Based on these cases we know similar situations have happened before. The supervision
of teachers and their going through with the assurance of safety is upmost. However, despite
everything we cannot always control what happens when students do not follow directions. We
will now look over cases similar to Ray’s that show that the school was not at fault.
On January 22, 1975 an incident occurred that prompted a case by the named of
CONNET v. FREMON CITY. SCH. DIST. In this case there were 4 total students in the class who
were being supervised by Mr.Blankenship according to the report. At the time of the incident the
teacher and three of the students were in a adjoining lab where they were cleaning up. Connet
was working with geo-blocks when he decided to join another student, Degner, at their table
where they were working with an alcohol burner to test the boiling point of certain substances.
Connet then wanted to see if the boiling points changed if they added alcohol to the vials. Degner
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denied this notion and asked him not to. However, Connet took it upon himself to do it anyway
despite being asked not to and not acquiring permission from the teacher to do this. When he
tried to add Alcohol to it, a fire erupted and the alcohol store exploded. This caused the student to
be engulfed in flames. The Teacher, Mr. Blankenship ran to the room after the explosion and put
the fire on the boy out with a blanket. In this case the Student, Connet decided to interact with an
experiment that was not his own and did actions not outlined in the original experiment. Connet
was only to work with Geoblocks and did not ask permission to use the Alcohol.
The Last case is GLASER GLASER v. EMPORIA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT. On the
morning of December 22, 1993, a student named Glaser had arrived at school in the hour
between 7:30AM and 7:45AM. The School day had not yet started and for reasons unlisted the
student was being chased by another fellow student. During the chase Glase ran into a public
street where he was git by an automobile adjacent to the school. In this case, School had not yet
started. The Incident had also occurred off school grounds in a public street, It is also worth
noting that the student had always walked to school and we can infer he had know street and
In conclusion I believe the middle school Ray Knight had gotten suspended from is guilty
of negligence. Despite the school being required by the school district to send multiple forms of
confirmation to the parents about the suspension they chose to send a note home with the
student. Similar to the two starting cases, Mastangelo v. west side union sch. Dist. and Station v.
Travelers insurance company. The students were left alone in potentially dangerous situations
without anyone to supervise them. All three incidents ended in injury to the student that could
References
FindLaw's Supreme Court of California case and opinions. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-supreme-court/1779651.html.
FindLaw's Supreme Court of Kansas case and opinions. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ks-supreme-court/1364854.html.
Louisiana, C. of A. of. (1974, February 11).STATION v. TRAVELERS INSU: 292 So.2d 289
https://www.leagle.com/decision/1974581292so2d2891512.
fremont-cty-sch-dist-etc.