Public educators must exercise reasonable care in screening prospective employees. The best way to avoid harm to students (and negligent lawsuits) is to check references carefully to determine a candidate's fitness. This means verifying basic data and scrutinizing past job performance by contacting references familiar with the candidate's work…

Reviews the concepts of negligence and "tort liability." Outlines briefly 10 legal cases that can be useful in explaining what the liability issues are for today's educators with regard to students who are injured while in school. Outlines six steps school officials should take to avoid negligence. (SR)

As a case involving forgotten goggles shows, negligence lawsuits take a damaging toll in terms of money, time, emotion, and self-worth. Educators' best defense is consistently discharging their duties to students in a reasonable, prudent manner. Science teachers should secure all dangerous chemicals, provide adequate supervision, develop proper…

As school activities proliferate, questions surface about educators' legal responsibilities. Litigants must establish evidence regarding recognizable legal duty, breach of a recognizable duty, proximate cause, or injury. Principals are responsible for providing adequate supervision; employing competent, efficient personnel; instructing adequately;…

Two legal theories inspire suicide-related lawsuits: tort claims of negligence and constitutional claims based on due process. A well-known case illustrates a middle-schooler's suicide and a district's negligence. Liability factors include duty, foreseeability, special relationship, danger creation, and immunity/contributory negligence. (MLH)

This paper stresses the outdoor recreation and education professionals should understand aspects of liability, negligence, and risk management. There are four elements that must be present if a person or organization is to be considered negligent: the presence of a legal duty of care, a breach of duty, proximate cause, and actual damages. When…

Describes the new Scottish Parliament's first education crisis: failure of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), which oversees the public examinations system, to make timely and correct awards to secondary students who sat exams. Discusses data processing problems, accountability and ministerial responsibility, communication issues,…

The assessment and placement of children with dyslexia at appropriate schools has been regulated in the UK by a series of laws since 1944. Recent public policy developments such as the introduction of new duties and rights, and the development of law regarding educational negligence have sharpened the public policy debate on the effectiveness of…

Here is a book to serve educators from all types of schools in either pre-service or professional development that is designed as a text for master's and licensure (post-master's) level. This book covers all the relevant issues in school law: (1) The legal system; (2) The federal and state role in education; (3) Church-state relationships; (4)…

Student affairs professionals recognize that learning experiences transcend the classroom, and they have expanded the range of programs and services available to students well beyond the laboratory and lecture hall. The authors survey judicial opinions involving institutional liability for negligence and conclude that the expansion of educational…

This paper reviews aspects of Canadian and U.S. law related to liability and negligence of outdoor programs and suggests strategies for risk management. To prove negligence, an individual injured in an outdoor program must prove that the outdoor leader had a duty of care to the participant, standards of care were breached, actual injury was…

Weighing in at 567 pages, including 107 pages of footnotes, the 9/11 Commission Report is a metaphor for the primitive and often dysfunctional state of risk management in large organizations such as colleges and universities. President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, told the commission that government decisions "were made from…

A Florida student suicide case alleging administrative and school board negligence had mixed results. School officials must be vigilant about the possibility of student suicide and put appropriate procedures into place. The connections to school may include confidential communications, curricular linkages (educational films and student journals),…

Individuals wishing to establish a legal negligence claim against a principal must first present evidence of recognizable duty (adequate supervision); breach of duty; proximate cause; and injury. Wise principals schedule periodic meetings to review safety measures, focus on vulnerable areas, designate an emergency stand-in, review equipment and…

Litigation regarding children assaulted by other children in public schools has produced two strands of case law: sex discrimination cases (based on federal law) and negligence cases. School personnel have a moral and legal responsibility to provide for the physical and emotional safety of children under their care. A Michigan middle-school…