SCHOOL ACCIDENTS

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3966, 9 July 1929, Page 1

SCHOOL ACCIDENTS

WHO IS LIABLE? A LEGAL PROBLEM. A question as to whether in ease of accident ,to a child when on school property theft 1 e is any liability attaching to the teacher or the Education Department was raised (by Mr. K. S. Williams (Bay of Plenty) in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. “Tlhe question is a, legal -on'e, and cannot ibe answered definitely,” replied the Minister of Education (the Hon. H. Atmoire), “though the Department has had several legal opinions on the matter. The teacher’s responsibility for the children under his charge has been the subject of many cases before the Courts, and it has been laid down that he. should conduct himself in the stume way as a wise and pirudent father in regard to the children under his care. The teacher owes to the child a 'definite duty to take parental care of him, and if the teacher’s conduct‘falls short of this standard, and if injury is done to the child as a result, the child, through his parents, may have a. claim for damages. There must he proved first negligence on the part of the teacher —mea-ning something which a reasonable person would not .do, qr omitting to do solmething which a reasonable person would do. The question of whether there is negligence or not is usually decided by a jury, which may also (is the amount of compensation. “The question of liability of the board is more difficult, aud legal opinions on the point are conflicting. There is, of course, no liability on the Department, which does not control .and pay the teachers, except in the ease of Native schools.”