School Liabilities and Fire Drills in School

Section 9(2)(a) of the Civil Liability Act states that when deciding whether a reasonable person would have taken precautions against a risk of harm, the courts consider the probability of harm occurring if care was not taken. Secondly, s 9(2)(b) considers what the gravity/ seriousness of the risk was and whether the defendant should adopt special care if s/he knows that people with particular needs are exposed to the foreseeable risk. However, the teacher/ school authority is not required to protect the student against all risk and sometimes a reasonable response is to do

2. The school should be held liable for Holbrook injury of there was no school supervision provided in the area Holbrook and other students were gathering.

There are many questions and arguments that remain about the standard of care within schools. Should the current standard of care in relation to schools be increased or remain the same or be substantially reduced? Does law of torts make a teacher’s job too difficult? Should schools always be held liable when a student is injured? ‘A tort is a “civil wrong” and for someone to commit a tort they have to interfere with another person’s rights, or fail in their legal obligations to that person, and this causes the person to suffer.’ (Drew Hopkins, 2008) An example case of civil wrong is State of Victoria v Bryar [1970] 44 ALJR 174.

In this day and age where school administrators consider backpacks, lockers, and baggy pants to be potential dangers to students and faculty, what will be next? Perhaps pencils, pens, scissors, and glue will be added to the list of items to ban from schools. These, along with other hazardous educational necessities pose real threats to maintaining an orderly school and should be prohibited.

Establishing negligence requires the plaintiff to prove the three elements of negligence before a court. The elements are that, the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care, the duty of care was breached, and that the harms suffered were directly related to the defendant’s breach. For a successful claims the plaintiff must satisfy all three by the balance of probabilities, which has been the case since Donohue v Stevenson. Simon must therefore prove that there was a duty of care owed to him by the defendant, his teacher, Mr Philpot. Therefore, he must prove that the harm suffered would have been reasonably foreseeable due to the actions or omission of the defendant. In this case, Mr Philpot owes Simon a duty of care, as it is reasonably foreseeable that a failure to provide sufficient supervision could result in injury when considering the nature of the environment they are in and the age of the students. Therefore, the first element is satisfied.

You hear almost every day another school goes into lock down or some crazy lunatic takes a gun to school its every tragic to hear of students and teachers getting shot. You hear of parents so afraid to send their child to school or not knowing when they drop their son or daughter off it will be there last. What if we can take preventive measures to help prevent a troubled individual or make them think twice about taking a gun to school? There are many things that schools can do to secure the students inside and are being implemented, but who are the students always around? And who sees the students more than anyone else? The teachers and I believe we can do the most good by arming them with guns after the proper training and

Other people that should be informed are people such as social services if the child is in care or there is previous history with social services. Other professionals the child may be involved with such as behavioural managers and physiotherapist should be told and information should also be shared with school governors so that policies can be reviewed and see if things can be changed to prevent the accident happening again.

Every school must have at least one fully qualified first aider. In my setting, every member of staff has an emergency first-aid in school certificate, myself included. If a child suffers a minor injury, these can normally be dealt with in school, e.g. a bumped head may require an ice-pack or cold compression. Cuts and grazes cleaned with water, and a plaster applied, if applicable. An accident form must be filled in and a copy kept for school records and a copy sent home to the parent/carer. If you have witnessed the incident, you should note the details and action taken. If it is a more serious injury, the parent/carer will be contacted. This might include if a child has vomited or has a cut that may require more urgent medical attention, e.g. Stitches.

With fires the procedure is to gather all the children and staff in the set meeting place in the class and then in an orderly manner to meet at the designated meeting place set by the setting which is normally outside and away from the building. A register should also be taken too to account for all the children in the class.

The hospital policy for fire drills requires one drill per shift per quarter. The audit shows that there are some compliancy concerns regarding the fire drills. During third shift, for the first and third quarters, no fire drill occurred. Also, there was no fire drill on the second shift during the fourth quarter. Obviously, there should be further study to determine the cause for the compliancy issue vs. staffing deficiencies during third shift. Additionally, each department will have a safety monitor assigned to ensure the fire drills occur as per hospital policy. The safety monitor will complete a form documenting the staff involved in the fire drill, date, and time the drill took place and will keep a copy in the safety manual to be inspected monthly.

When dealing with illness or injuries that are of a minor nature, as a teacher or teacher assistant, in most case those kids or young people would remain in school, for example minor injuries like, minor cuts, ruses and abrasions.

All visitors are to report to the school reception area, to book in and out. All visitors will be escorted whilst on school premises. Visitors are to be given a school badge which must be worn at all times.

It was unethical for school officials to report that they did not know how the student sustained injuries. It seems that a thorough investigation was not done to decipher what happened in the student’s classroom. It is against the law for any teacher to inflict any form of injuries to students. School officials are held accountable for each student who is placed into their care. Therefore, it was an irresponsible action against the school system.

The second area that I talked to Mrs. Miskell about was security in the schools. She talked very in depth about the security procedures in her school. She told me about the formulated plan that the school enacted, where all visitors to the school have to stop into the main office and sign into a book and then they receive a special visitors badge, that they have to wear at all times while in the school. Another modification of this plan is that once all the children are into the school, all the doors are locked except the front door where the main office is located. If there is an emergency, the principal announces over the loudspeaker a special code that only the teachers know, so that the children don't panic. If the students hear fire, they are all going to split a different way and that would lead to mayhem, which is very dangerous in an emergency situation. There is a safety team at every school in the district, and one representative

1992). The age of the student involved plays a factor as well, putting some liability on the parents. With the numerous factors involved in the determination of liability a teacher should be well versed in the rules and regulations as well as their responsibilities to the classroom and to the students themselves.