Will More Teachers and Aides Sue Districts Over Student Injuries?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder predicts that lawsuits from educators injured by students will increase as schools continue to fail at providing safe working conditions.
Key Takeaways
- Lawsuits are coming - As violence increases and schools fail to protect staff, legal action is an inevitable outcome
- The Zwerner case set a precedent - The Abby Zwerner verdict showed that districts can be held liable for foreseeable harm
- Prevention is cheaper than litigation - Investing in discipline and safety now costs far less than defending lawsuits later
Transcript
Let's talk about lawsuits over injuries from students.
We have not seen many instances of teachers or other educators suing their school districts because they got injured by a student.
But I'm wondering if we're going to see more of this because it is the financial pressure that can kind of offset some of the other financial pressure.
A lot of people have said in comments on my previous videos that one reason schools are not doing anything about student violence is that there are financial incentives for not doing anything.
And those financial incentives take two main forms that I know of.
Number one, some schools are funded based on average daily attendance, and if a kid is suspended, you don't get funding for him that day.
Personally, as a former school administrator, I don't think that's a really big one.
You know, it's generally worth whatever lost revenue you get if you really need to suspend a kid.
I don't think that's a huge driver of that.
But the other one, number two, is...
just the expense of specialized placements for students with behavioral disabilities or just very extreme behavior needs, those do cost a lot of money and that's why we have a lot of students who are placed kind of inappropriately in classrooms where they're not being safe and they're not receiving the services they need.
But I'm wondering what you think about lawsuits over injuries because so many people have left comments saying how they were injured and how they had to have surgeries and, you know, it was just the result of these kind of terrible student behaviors.
that districts should be doing something about.
And I'm wondering if it's going to take lawsuits, if it's going to take the financial exposure of not having done anything about staff safety for them to actually get serious about student behavior.
Let me know what you think.