injuries at school

Published on: April 24, 2018

Student Concussion Injury Lawsuit Against School Settled for $7.1M

A school district in California has agreed to pay $7.1 million to a former high school football player who sued for personal injuries after he reportedly suffered permanent brain damage stemming from the failure of his coach to recognize his concussion after a game.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the student was 14 and a freshman on the school’s football team when he was diagnosed with a concussion following a game in the fall of 2013. Coaches reportedly had been trained specifically to recognize the symptoms of head injuries, but despite this did not seek medical help for the student when he displayed several of those symptoms. Prior to the incident, plaintiff was a bright student with a 3.9 GPA and a promising future. He was forced to take a year off school and returned to his studies at a high school that has a program specifically for students suffering from brain injuries.

For a time after the incident, he was comatose. There was uncertainty about whether he’d walk or talk again. His lawyers said the fact that he is now in a position to be able to graduate is “miraculous.” Continue reading →

Published on: April 11, 2018

Court: Colleges Owe Duty of Care to Protect Students

By Dean Freeman

Amid ongoing incidents of violence at schools and colleges, the California Supreme Court has ruled that colleges DO owe their students a duty of care to protect them from foreseeable violence during curricular activities. This responsibility, the court ruled, was owing to the power dynamic between schools and students, which amounts to a “special relationship.”

This was a reversal of a previous appellate court decision, which held 2 to 1 that universities and colleges had no general legal obligation to protect adult students from the criminal actions of other students.

The case involves a 20-year-old pre-med student who was viciously attacked with a knife in a chemistry classroom by a fellow University of California at Los Angeles student. Her attacker had previously been diagnosed with paranoid delusions and possible schizophrenia and was undergoing outpatient treatment at the university at the time of the incident. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. Plaintiff’s argument against the university was the school breached its duty of care by failing to take reasonable steps to protect her from foreseeable violence. Continue reading →

Published on: March 5, 2018

Florida School Shooting Victims Mull Lawsuit Against Authorities

By Dean Freeman

The horrific events of last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County left 17 people killed and dozens of people wounded. It also left the community, the state and the nation reeling, once again trying to make sense of the whys and the hows and who should be held responsible. Most notably, this has sparked another heated debate over access to guns and Second Amendment rights. However, it’s also an important time to examine what duty of care schools, law enforcement officials and other government entities have in keeping students safe, and who should be held accountable when those measures fail or aren’t enough.

The Miami Herald recently reported that one 15-year-old student, shot five times in both legs, intends to sue Broward County and seek monetary damages to help cover the cost of his long-time recovery. The notice of intent to file a lawsuit names several entities, including the Broward County Public Schools, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the school resource officer who was on duty that day. In a briefly outlined statement, his attorney indicated actions by these entities and individuals failed to protect students (and this student in particular) from life-threatening harm, and further were unreasonable, callous and negligent. He asserted the defendants’ actions/ inaction were the proximate cause of plaintiff’s serious and lasting injuries.

Now, we must pause here for a moment to explain because it is a seemingly foreign concept that someone other than the person firing the shots could be legally responsible for the attack. Within the criminal justice system, absent any evidence of collusion or conspiracy, that is probably true. However, within the civil justice system we are looking at anybody who owed a duty of care to the person who was hurt, whether those duties were breached and whether those breaches allowed the perpetrator the access and opportunity to carry out his plots. Continue reading →

Published on: February 21, 2017

School District Liability for Student Injury Weighed

By Dean Freeman

We send our children to school with the expectation that the grounds are reasonably safe and the kids will be properly supervised. When this is not the case and an injury results, it could be grounds for litigation.

Generally, personal injury lawsuits against school districts tend to be tricky because, first and foremost, public schools are agents of the government. As such, they are entitled to certain protections, such as sovereign immunity, which is only waived under certain circumstances. Still, it’s usually accepted that there is a special relationship between school staffers and students, and thus a duty to protect.

In a recent case out of Wyoming, the question was whether a school district should be liable for injuries suffered to a child who fell while playing on a patch of ice on school grounds during school hours. The Wyoming Supreme Court, in reviewing the lower court’s ruling, analyzed four different elements of this case and determined the answer to the question of liability was: No. Continue reading →