Negligence

Educators, including teachers and school administrators, are often concerned about the extent of their legal liability for injuries sustained by children who are under their direct supervision as students. When educators are sued for injuries to children, it is under the broad rubric of the tort of negligence. Torts are civil wrongs that occur when persons suffer harms or losses as a direct consequence of the improper conduct of others.

One type of tort, intentional torts, such as assault, battery, and defamation, are expressly characterized as the intent to do harm to others. For example, while assault is the threat of an unwanted touch, battery is the actual unwanted intentional contact with another person, such as striking a child while in the act of imposing corporal punishment.

By far, the most common tort occurring in schools is negligence. Negligence occurs when accidents take place resulting in injuries to others because one failed to act reasonably. In determining liability for negligence, courts and others such as insurance companies must assess whether the persons alleged to have been responsible acted as reasonable and prudent persons would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.

In order to present valid causes of action for negligence, plaintiffs, the parties filing suit, must prove the four legal elements of this tort: duty of care (along with the related notion of foreseeability), breach of duty, actual injury or loss, and cause, meaning that the defendant was the proximate cause of the resulting injury. To escape full or partial liability, defendants must assert all or parts of the three defenses: immunity, comparative or contributory negligence, and assumption of risk. This entry describes these legal elements and defenses in the education context.