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Doe Parents No. 1 v. State11/27/2002
ble with Lee's tacit acknowledgment that the DOE shares a special relationship with its students, which, we believe, extends to the students' parents as well. Miller and Kim expressly held that the DOE is subject to a duty reasonably to supervise students. In both cases, the students in question had been injured as an alleged result of their respective school's negligent supervision. Impliedly, then, the purpose of requiring the DOE to exercise reasonable supervision over the students entrusted to them by their parents -- under, we note, the compulsion of law, seeHRS § 298-9 (1993) -- is to ensure that the children's educational custodians provide them with a safe environment in which they will be reasonably protected against foreseeable harms that the DOE can or reasonably should anticipate.
Moreover, in other contexts, we have approved the rule, set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 314A (1965), that " ne who is required by law to take . . . the custody of another under circumstances such as to deprive the other of his [or her] normal opportunities for protection is under" a duty to the other "to protect [him or her] against unreasonable risk of physical harm." See, e.g., Touchette, 82 Hawaii at 298-99, 922 P.2d at 352-53. A particularized application of this rule is set forth in greater detail in the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 320, at 130 (1965), which provides:
One who is required by law to take or who voluntarily takes the custody of another[,] under circumstances such as to deprive the other of his [or her] normal power of self-protection or to subject him [or her] to association with persons likely to harm him [or her], is under a duty to exercise reasonable care so to control the conduct of third persons as to prevent them from intentionally harming the other or so conducting themselves as to create an unreasonable risk of harm to him [or her], if the actor
(a) knows or has reason to know that he [or she] has the ability to control the conduct of the third persons, and
(b) knows or should know of the necessity and opportunity for exercising such control.
Comment a to § 320 remarks that the rule is applicable, inter alia, to "teachers or other persons in charge of a public school." Id. at 130. Comment b to § 320 clarifies that the foregoing is true because " he circumstances under which the custody of another is taken and maintained may be such as to deprive him [or her] . . . of the protection of someone who, if present, would be under a duty to protect him [or her] . . . . " Id. at 130-31. Because "a child[,] while in school[,] is deprived of the protection of his [or her] parents or guardian," "the actor who takes custody . . . of child is properly required to give him [or her] the protection which the custody or the manner in which it is taken has deprived him [or her.]" Id. at 131.
As we have observed, pursuant to HRS § 298-9, the state required that children attend school and, thereby, deprived them of the protection from reasonably foreseeable harm that their parents normally provide. The Washington Supreme Court has reasoned that, in doing so, the state usurps a parent's protective custody of his or her child, replacing it with that of school teachers and administrators. See Carabba, 435 P.2d at 946-47, discussed supra in note 44. We agree, and in accord with the rules expressed in the Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 314A and 320, we believe that the DOE shares a "special relationship" -- i.e., a quasi-parental or in loco parentis custodial relationship -- with its students, which obligates the DOE to exert reasonable care in ensuring each student's safety and welfare, as would a reasonably prudent parent.
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