Leaving School
Q: I was 16 years old and leaving summer school, along with hundreds of kids. My friends and I intended to walk to a restaurant to get something to eat. Prior to leaving the school grounds, I noticed a group of six young men, whom I thought were gang members, walking down the street toward the school.
As I was leaving, I told the school’s security officers, who were stationed at sawhorse barricades, about the gang. The officers responded “we don’t care” and continued to direct us off the premises.
At first, I didn’t feel so threatened. I am not a member of a gang, and didn’t think they would mess with me. Then I decided I would be better off returning to the school campus, but the security guards would not let me. Sure enough, just outside the barricades, the knives came out.
A: The school’s attorney will argue that it is not an insurer of the safety of its students, and that the duty owed to its students is co-extensive with the school’s physical custody and control over them. You had passed out of the school’s orbit of authority.
In rebuttal, your attorney will argue that the school had notice that gang members were present directly outside the school. Nevertheless, the school negligently supervised you by permitting you to proceed outside, into their vicious hands. The school released you into a foreseeably hazardous setting.
Your attorney will say that the fact that an assault occurs outside the school gate does not relieve the school of its duty to provide adequate supervision to students as they are leaving the school premises, nor is it a license for school personnel knowingly to direct students off the school premises in the face of an immediate risk of harm.
By: Scott Baron,
Attorney at Law Advertorial
The law responds to changed conditions; exceptions and variations abound. Here, the information is general; always seek out competent counsel. This article shall not be construed as legal advice.
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