Legal Issues in Education Liability

Legal Issues in Education

Liability and negligence are words that high schools teach students as a matter of learning vocabulary words and understanding laws and the rules of society. But for school board officials, principals and district lawyers, "liability" and "negligence" take on a whole different tone when students' safety is under consideration. In which cases are schools and districts liable for incidents involving students? This paper will review three cases.

In the first case, Henderson v. Walled Lake Consolidated Schools (No. 05-1814) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in 2006 that a Michigan school district (Walled Lake) was not liable when a high school soccer coach used "threatening conduct" and questionable, provocative language with his players. According to the National School Boards Association (NSBA) (www.nsba.org) the coach, Russell Crawford, apparently had a habit of using vulgar and "demeaning" language towards members of his team. He also told the team that complaints about his language and style would result in reduced playing time for the complaining player.

Moreover, he had made "flirtatious" advances towards players and threatened to punish the entire team (with "consequences") if any member disclosed his seemingly cozy relationship with one player in particular, Jill Byrd; Crawford had phoned Jill late at night, kept her after practice for "counseling," and emailed her, much to her parents' chagrin, vis-a-vis her safety.

After Jill's parents complained, an assistant principle (Kevin Clarke) intervened and established strict rules for the coach (no emails that aren't copied to Clarke, no late-night phone calls); Clarke began attending games and playing close attention to the situation. One of the girls (Teresa Henderson, who had been "stripped of her team captaincy because of her 'attitude'," according to the NSBA) sued the district and several school officials; she claimed sexual harassment, sex discrimination and retaliation under Michigan's Civil Rights Act and Title IX, and denial of due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. But the district court dismissed claims, and the Sixth Circuit affirmed. The specific reasons are too lengthy to lay out entirely here, but on the "hostile environment" and "sexual harassment" claim, Henderson had failed to show that defendants "...had reasonable notice of the harassment and failed to take appropriate corrective action," hence the district officials were not liable. The players had not reported their concerns to school officials, and when they did notify Clarke, he took corrective action; also, the sexual issues took place between Crawford and Jill, not Teresa.

The second case involves a third grader who was seriously injured (became quadriplegic) when he ran into the street after school and was hit by a car. His family argued that they had not been made aware of early release, and sued Pleasantville Public Schools (Jerkins v. Anderson a-49-06) for negligently "failing to carry out its duty to provide reasonable supervision," the NSBA explains. The upshot of the 2007 case is that the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled schools so indeed have a "duty of reasonable care for supervising students' safety at dismissal times," the NSBA explains. The Court held that schools are liable in these matters, and must: "provide adequate notice" of dismissal times; adopt "a reasonable policy concerning dismissal" and the "manner in which students of different ages will be dismissed"; and must adhere to parents' "reasonable requests regarding dismissal."