In Loco Parentis

Conferring Rights

Sir William Blackstone, in 1769, captured this shared responsibility when he articulated the doctrine of in loco parentis, literally “in the place of the parent.” Blackstone asserted that part of parental authority is delegated to schoolmasters. Pursuant to this common-law doctrine, parents, in effect, delegate to schoolmasters the powers of “restraint and correction” that may be necessary to educate their children. Blackstone referred to the schoolmasters who were often the sole individuals responsible for the education of children. The modern analogy is that of schools and their staffs. Schools assume custody of students and, at the same time, the students are deprived of the protection of their parents. In effect, the schools act in place of the parent or instead of the parent-in loco parentis. This status is legal and not just descriptive. For example an appellate court in New York, in Garcia v. City of New York (1996), held that schools, once they take over physical custody and control of children, effectively take the place of their parents and guardians.

In loco parentis has moved from being primarily a right of restraint and coercion used to discipline students to being a duty of school officials to protect those same students. School personnel have authority over students by virtue of in loco parentis and a concomitant duty to protect those students.

The right of educators to exercise the same degree of control over a student that a parent is privileged to exercise is found in many state laws. For example, California state law (§ 48907) holds that teachers, vice principals, principals, or other certificated employees of school boards are privileged to exercise the same degree of physical control over children that their parent may legally use and are immunized from criminal prosecution or criminal penalties when in the performance of those duties. An appellate court in California, in In re Donaldson (1969), upheld the statute maintaining that school officials stand in loco parentis, allowing the use of moderate force in disciplining students just as parents have the right to use force to gain obedience from their children. Other states, such as Georgia (§ 20–215) and West Virginia (§ 18A-5-1), also have codified in loco parentis, wherein educators have the right to discipline students to the same degree that parents may legally discipline their children.

Defining Duties

A second element of in loco parentis defines a duty that educators owe to their students. Under tort principles of negligence, educators owe students a duty to anticipate foreseeable dangers and to take reasonable steps to protect those students from that danger. To this end, educators owe the same degree of care and supervision to their students that reasonable and prudent parents would employ in the same circumstances for their children.

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