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Hill v. Safford Unified School District12/30/1997
quests for help and warnings that another was threatening to immediately kill him provided notice to school which imposed specific duty of protection).
Despite appellant's urging, this case bears only superficial resemblance to Jesik. There, a student had "words" with a man who told him he was coming back to the school with a gun to kill him. The student immediately reported the threat to a school security guard and received "assurances of help and protection." Id. at 544, 611 P.2d at 548. When the man returned with a briefcase, the student pointed both him and the briefcase out to the security guard, who again assured him of protection. Although the guard spoke to the man, the guard then left the area and the man pulled a gun from the briefcase and shot the student. Summary judgment was reversed because there was evidence that school personnel "had specific and repeated notice of both the actor and the exact type of harm that did in fact occur." 125 Ariz. at 547, 611 P.2d at 551. We find no like evidence here to support a breach of the school's duty of supervision or to put it on notice that Fast posed a danger to Hill, either during or after school.
This case bears more similarities to Brownell, where a gang mistook a high school student for a rival gang member and shot him in the street outside the school after class. Although the school frequently removed gang-related items from students, had occasionally confiscated weapons, and another student previously had been threatened by "some Crips," there had been no prior shootings and no indications of potential gang violence the day of the assault. Brownell alleged negligent supervision in the school's failure to protect him from gang-related after-school violence. The California court of appeals disagreed, acknowledging the school could be held liable for injuries suffered by a student off school premises and after school hours, but finding no evidence that school officials were aware of a pending gang confrontation or similar violence, or any evidence "reflecting not necessarily this identical type of assault but that `the possibility of this type of harm was foreseeable.'" 4 Cal. App. 4th at 797, 5 Cal. Rptr. 2d at 762 (citation omitted), see also Danna (breach of school's supervisory duty requires that third party acts could reasonably have been anticipated). As our supreme court noted in Morris: " he principle is too well established for quibbling `that before liability may be imposed for an act [or failure to act], the prevision of a reasonable person must be able to recognize danger of harm to the plaintiff or one in plaintiff's situation.'" 103 Ariz. at 121, 437 P.2d at 654 (citation omitted).
Appellant points to no evidence indicating the school's alleged knowledge of any pending gang activity or Fast's propensity for violence, other than nonspecific rumors of the "Eight Ball Posse" and a past rumor that Fast had a gun in his locker, a rumor the school investigated and dispelled. Moreover, the only concrete action appellant suggests the school could have taken was to detain Fast and call police or his parents after his verbal altercation with Hill the day of the shooting. Appellant does not explain, however, why such action would have been warranted, much less required, other than because the school had done so in a similar situation three days earlier, notwithstanding that the two incidents involved different students and circumstances. Nor does appellant contend that detaining Fast and/or calling police would have prevented the ensuing tragedy. In this regard, the trial court commented: This Judge cannot come up with anything that the school could have done to discipline Scott Fast that would have prevented him from hurting
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