Assignment #3

Assignment #3

Reyna Franco

College of Southern Nevada

Assignment #3

Can a school be charged for injures to a student? In this scenario, a middle school student

Ray Knight was suspended for three days due to unexcused absences. The school only sent a

notice by the student, who threw it away. Although school districts procedures required

telephone notification and a prompt written notice by mail to his parents, as which the

procedures were not followed, Ray’s parents were unaware of his suspension. During his first

day of suspension. Ray was accidentally shot while visiting a friend’s house. Do Ray’s parents

have defensible grounds to pursue liability charges against school officials?

One court case that supports Ray’s parents is the court case of Jerkins Ex Rel. Jerkins v

Anderson and the Pleasantville Board of Education. This case involved a 9-year-old boy who

was struck by a car after the school day ended with an early dismissal. The child’s family

members, who typically walked him home from school, claimed they did not know about the

early dismissal. The Appellate Division found a duty on the part of the school district to exercise

care. That duty requires school districts to adopt and comply with a reasonable dismissal

supervision policy, provide adequate notice of that policy to parents and guardians and comply

with parents’ reasonable requests regarding dismissal (Jerkins Ex Rel. Jerkins v. Anderson. 922

A.2d 1279 (2007) 191 N.J. 285).

Another court case that supports Ray’s parents is D.C. v. Landry Parish School Board

(2001). In this case a father D.C. brought this suit individually and as tutor of his minor daughter,

K.C., to recover the damages arising from an incident which occurred when K.C. attempted to

walk home from East Junior High School in Opelousas, Louisiana, on September 5, 1996. D.C.

named as defendants the St. Landry Parish School Board; Robert Morrison, the principal of East

Junior High School; Ryan Hooks, the vice-principal at East Junior High School; Earline

Guilbeau, a secretary at East Junior High School; and

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[802 So.2d 21]

Neil Mark Lewis, a man who sexually molested K.C. on that day. After trial, the trial court

rendered a $20,405.00 judgment in favor of D.C. and K.C.

One court case that supports the school in which Ray Knight was attending is Collette v.

Tolleson Unified High School District. In this case a high school student was killed and others

were seriously injured in an automobile accident that occurred off campus during lunch hour.

The plaintiff argued that the school was negligent in allowing students to leave campus for lunch

in failing to enforce its modified closed-campus policy. The school argued that it had no duty to

protect against injuries occurring in off-campus lunchtime accidents (Collette v. Tolleson

Unified School District No 214, 203 Ariz. 359, 362 (App. 2002). The court in this case ruled in

favor of the school district.

Another court case that supports the school is Barnett v. Caldwell, S17G0641. In this

case, High school student Antoine Williams tragically died after engaging in horseplay with

another student while his teacher was out of their classroom. Antoine’s parents filed a complaint

against Appellee Phyllis Caldwell, who was Antoine's teacher at the time of his death. They

alleged that Caldwell was liable in her individual capacity for Antoine's wrongful death because

she had been negligent in supervising his classroom. The trial court granted Caldwell's motion

for summary judgment, concluding that she was entitled to official immunity because her acts

were the product of discretionary decisions concerning the supervision of students. The Court of

Appeals affirmed. Barnett v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 339 Ga. App. 533 (792 SE2d 474) (2016).

Granted certiorari to consider this ruling. Conclude that student supervision is not unalterably

discretionary in all respects, but here, because the school's policy was not so definite as to render

Caldwell's actions ministerial, she is entitled to official immunity.

Assignment #3

In my opinion, in the case concerning Ray Knight I find that the court will rule in his

favor. Due to school officials not following the proper school district procedures they breached

its duty of care. If Ray Knight’s parents had been made aware of his suspension the accident may

not have occurred. Just as in the case of Jerkins v Anderson the courts ruled on June 14, 2007

that the school owed a duty to exercise care. Therefore, in the case of Ray Knight the school was

negligent in its duty to follow school procedures, which led to the improper supervision of a

minor, which resulted in injury.

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References

Barnett v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 339 Ga. App. 533 (792 SE2d 474) (2016)

Collette v. Tolleson Unified School District No. 214, 203 Ariz. 359, 362 (App. 2002).

D.C. v. ST. Landry Parish School Board 802 So.2d 19 (2001)

Jerkins ex rel. Jerkins v. Anderson, 922 N.J. 1279 (2007)