 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Doe Parents No. 1 v. State11/27/2002
sence at school." Moreover, relying on our citation in Lee of Eisel v. Board of Education, 597 A.2d 447 (Md. 1991) (holding that school counselor owes a duty to use reasonable means to attempt to prevent student's suicide if he or she is on notice of student's suicidal ideation), and Brooks v. Logan, 903 P.2d 73 (Idaho 1995) (holding that school district and teacher were subject to statutory duty to exercise reasonable care in supervising students and preventing foreseeable harm to them), the circuit court concluded that, because the DOE stood "in the position of a parent" with regard to its students, the DOE was specifically subject to "a duty not only to supervise students, but [also] to take such reasonable measures as would be taken by reasonable parents to avoid injury to students." See Lee, 83 Hawaii at 171, 925 P.2d at 341 (distinguishing Eisel and Brooks from the record before it on the basis that, in those cases, "children [were] under the care, protection, control and supervision of their respective schools, a role which the Brooks court 'described as one in loco parentis'" (quoting Brooks, 903 P.2d at 79)); see also Eisel, 597 A.2d at 451-52 ("the relation of a school vis[-]a[-]vis a pupil is analogous to one who stands in loco parentis, with the result that a school is under a special duty to exercise reasonable care to protect a pupil from harm" (as quoted in Lee, 83 Hawaii at 171, 925 P.2d at 341).
The DOE takes particular exception to the circuit court's Conclusion of Law (COL) No. 35 to the effect that, on the facts of this case, the requisite standard of care "included" the following specific "duties":
a. to conduct a reasonably thorough administrative investigation of T.Y.'s allegations against Norton, so as to avoid the possibility of similar actions against other students . . . ;
b. to adequately supervise its employees, including teachers, who are in a position to cause injury to students;
c. to provide adequate training to its administrators in appropriate issues, such as the proper methodology for conducting administrative investigations, pedophilia, and the procedures for conducting interviews of students who may be victims of sexual molestation by a teacher;
d. to not make misrepresentations of fact to others who rely on representations made by DOE administrators regarding issues that concern and directly impact the safety of students; and
e. to properly conduct interviews of students who may be victims of sexual molestation by a teacher, and to immediately contact the parents of such students, unless good cause exists not to contact the parents.
The DOE also challenges the circuit court's COL No. 36, which concluded that "these duties extend not only to the students themselves, but to the parents of the students, because it is reasonably foreseeable that the parents of students would also be foreseeably endangered by breaches of these duties." The DOE maintains that it merely owes students a duty of reasonable supervision during their required attendance at school; in support of its position, the DOE cites Kim v. State, 62 Haw. 483, 491-92, 6616 P.2d 1376, 1381-82 (1980). Thus, the DOE perceives the circuit court's ruling as "greatly expand " the standard of care to which it must conform its conduct in superintending Hawaii's public schools. Indeed, in the DOE's view, the circuit court imposed "new duties" upon it that, "in essence," hold it "to the standard of care of detectives, attorneys, and mental health counselors."
The DOE argues that the circuit court erroneously predicated its conclusions with respect to the duty that the DOE owed to the plaintiffs on its findings with regard
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 Hawaii Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|