Oyston v St Patrick's College [2011] NSWSC 269 Introduction Disputes between individuals can be dealt formally through government departments such as a court. A court case is a dispute between two parties that is decided in a court of law. The court can analyse a case and provide a solution and fair judgement between both parties. One example of a case that was evident in the courts was the case, Oyston v St Patrick's College [2011] NSWSC 269. This negligence case was placed forward to the court in resolving a dispute regarding a student, and their former high school. The courts can provide a resolution to the dispute when the plaintiff believes that they have been treated with misconduct. Who is involved in the dispute and what it was about? …show more content…
In 2010, Jazmine Oyston sued her former high school, St.
Patrick’s College Campbelltown, for negligence. She alleged that she had been bullied and harassed by other students in the school between 2002 and 2005 and therefore suffered panic attacks, anxiety, and depression, injured while enrolled at the school. Her case was about the school’s policies and practices, and how the practices, “failed to protect her from a recognised and foreseeable risk of harm.” The case was brought in the NSW Supreme Court under the rule that the school had breached its duty of care to a former student. The outcome of the dispute The outcome of the dispute between Oyston v St Patrick's College (2011) NSWSC 269 reached a verdict and the case was awarded to Oyston. The judge in the case had to consider that there was a foreseeable risk, which was in fact foreseen by the school, that bullying at the school might result in harm. After considering this, the judge found that, although the school has published clear policies in relation to bullying circumstances and have attempted to …show more content…
deal with the issue, its response according to the judge was “ad hoc, rather than systematic,” and therefore did not demonstrate the responses anticipated by policies. Therefore, the conclusion of the case showed that the College’s response to the bullying which existed in the school based on their policies was inadequate. Also, the judge stated that the school was aware of the circumstances and knew about the bullying but failed to provide safeguards. In terms of causation, according to judge Schmidt J “although Oyston was particularly vulnerable to psychological injury and her experiences at home and her parents’ inability to effectively deal with the bullying contributed to the harm suffered, her injuries were the direct result of the College’s failure to take the very steps it had devised to prevent such injury being inflicted by one student upon another.” In Conclusion, Ms Oyston won the case and was granted compensation with a six-figure sum. Do you think the outcome was just? Why/why not? The outcome of the case was definitely just.
As a school, it is their duty of care to protect students from any harm through their policies and rules of the school. With the policies, they should create ways to tackle the issue of school bullying and even if their policy was not working, they should rectify the policy and make it suitable for the school. It this instance, the school did either of those things and knew about the bullying and didn’t step in and give an opportunity to solve the issue between Oyston and her bullies. If the school board at least tried to rectify the issue, they wouldn’t have been punished. They basically just watched it all unfold and were just witnesses and being a witness that has the power and authority to stop the bullying in the school, it is well deserved that they were publicly scrutinised and legally
punished. The method that Oyston used to resolve her dispute was through the Supreme Court of NSW. The supreme court is the highest court in NSW and has unlimited civil jurisdiction. When going through the litigation process, there are both advantages and disadvantages when solving a dispute in the court. The court of law is regarded as the highest quality decision making process there is. Also according to the court regarding civil matters, there is the rule of legal standing. The rules of legal standing will only allow those who have suffered in economic loss to sue another party. Jazmine Oystons case was based around the damages through her personal injuries, the loss of earnings and past and future economic loss due to her depression. Therefore, she believed that the court could resolve the dispute since she had a valid argument to place forward to the court and therefore will effectively generate the best and fairest result for her and the other party. Another Advantage, when resolving a dispute in the court is that a decision can be appealed. The school in this case appealed against the decision of the case but ended up losing the judgement and was ordered to pay Ms Oyston more money. Therefore, after the school appealed to the court but lost, the dispute was finally resolved. Although only a small number percentage of legal disputes actually are result in the courts, due to the circumstances of the case, it ended up being an effective resolution to the case for both parties.
In the case of Schmidt v. Massapequa High School, the plaintiff, Schmidt, alleged negligent of the voluntary assistant coach and Massapequa UFSD (Union Free School District). On January 22, 2008, Vincent D’Agostino, who was a voluntary assistant coach at Massapequa High School, was allowed to participate in a wrestling practice by Massapequa UFSD. During the practice, D’Agostino picked the plaintiff up and threw him to the ground. While they were matching, D’Agostino’s body fell onto the body of the plaintiff, causing the plaintiff’s injury, fracture. Thus, the plaintiff, Schmidt, argued that Massapequa UFSD did not supervise D’Agostino correctly, and stated that the application of the doctrine of primary assumption is unwarranted. The plaintiff submits his own affidavit, his mother’s affidavit, and an affidavit of Steven Shettner. Since this case was submitted by the plaintiff, it is considered as a civil case. Shettner is an experienced wrestling coach. He states that there is risk of causing an injury in extracurricular sports; however, awareness of the risk assumed is to be assessed against the background of the skill and experience of the particular plaintiff.
This decision makes it clear the most important thing for a school to do is to protect the students. It also states that the board of education, whose role is to oversee the schools, must make sure that the staff of the schools is protecting those children. This case highlights that long-term abuse can happen in schools if there are not clear policies or, if there are, that there is no one ensuring that those policies are
Robert Duffley, a high school senior at Trinity High School, had withdrawn from his sophomore year early in the first semester after falling ill. Anticipating problems with his eligibility to participate in high-school sports during his senior year under certain NHIAA rules, Duffley’s principal sought a ruling from the NHIAA granting such eligibility. The NHIAA decided to allow Duffley to participate only during the first semester of his senior year. No reason was given for denying Duffley eligibility for the second semester. After unsuccessful appeals to the NHIAA executive council, Duffley filed a petition in the Superior Court, seeking equitable and injunctive relief. Duffley alleged "violation of his due process rights” and that the defendant had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in arriving at its decision, which was “unreasonable and unlawful."
The minority countered this argument when the school board said, “it is our duty, our moral obligation, to protect the children in our school from this moral danger as surely as from physical and medical dangers” (qtd. in Board of
The primary responsibility of student discipline falls on the school officials. Disciplining students helps with keeping order in the school, and the main reason for discipline is to keep the safety of entities of the school. However, discipline can be hard when the issues happen outside school grounds, especially for issues that occur through social media platforms, also known as off-campus speech. Off-campus speech is very tricky to deal with, and as school personnel, we need to make sure we do not take action based on students’ opinions until we know the facts and the law behind our actions.
Through using case laws, the First Amendment, and previous cases, Justice Abe Fortas explains the reasoning behind why the principal was not permissible. In the first two paragraphs, Fortas provides a brief summary stating how the policy banning armbands go against the First Amendment. In the following paragraph, Fortas says, “Only a few of the 18,00 students in the school system wore the black armbands.” When introducing his first argument, he supports this fact explaining how “the work of the schools or any class was [not] disrupted.” As for the fourth paragraph, Justice Fortas provides a counter argument with what the District Court said. The District Court concluded the school authorities were reasonable since it was based upon their fear o...
Most acts of bullying are dealt with, but not always in the correct way of doing so. Bullying Policies in many schools state that bullying is not tolerated and has consequences that will be used if bullying occurs. However, Jodi draws our attention to the issue that not all schools have a policy that states the consequences of bullying and practically just tells the victim to fight back and stand up for himself. This generally makes things worse for the victim by allowing the bully think that the victim is trying to "embarrass" the bully. With repeated attacks on one, it will have him/her believe they are either "useless" or think that they have to do something to prevent the next attacks, and this may not always be pretty or the "right" way. The results of these intense, repeated attacks can cause the victim Just like this book, shootings are a result of bullying, derogation, and ignorance and end ultimately end with many
Throughout the years there have been limitless legal cases presented to the court systems. All cases are not the same. Some cases vary from decisions that are made by a single judge, while other cases decisions are made by a jury. As cases are presented, they typically start off as disputes, misunderstandings, or failure to comply, among other things. It is possible to settle some cases outside of the courts, but that does require understanding and cooperation by all parties involved.
(PURPOSE) According to Bradshaw, there are many forms of bullying in schools. There is the traditional name calling, verbal abuse. There is also the sudden, and rapid emergence of cyberbullying in schools and children (Bradshaw, 2013, pp. 290). Bradshaw also states, that staff member’s role in anti-bullying prevention efforts, could help in the prevention in bullying in the school environment (Bradshaw, 2013, pp. 280). According to Smith, there is lots of pressure on educators to maintain good behavior among their students, in the school and outside of school. The educators are encouraged to reinforce the ideas of the school on the child, to carry outside of school (Smith, 2012, pp. 49). According to Diamantes, schools have a duty to protect their pupils, yet at the same time a school is not accountable from any rush action taken by a bully or a victim of bullying. (Diamantes, 2010, ...
I watched the film “The Bullying Project.” It was quite upsetting throughout the whole film to see how these children were being treated and how one’s bullying led to a suicide at a young age. The film documented the lives of a few kids and how they were treated at their school by their peers and administration. In the film, the followed a young boy named Alex who felt like he was very different and other people could tell. He felt like he did not have any friends. Most of his bullying happened on the bus through older boys calling him names, threatening him, and stabbing, choking and hitting him. He said in the film that the bullying makes him want to be a bully back. When the parents of Alex had seen the footage the documenter’s caught of Alex being bullied the parents went straight to the principal.
We all agree that bullying is atrocious. Surveys Show That 77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally, and physically. Many schools are asking the same question: What do we do with the bullies? Many bullies end up getting kicked out of their school, because of their actions of bullying. I believe schools should not kick out bullies. Students who are found guilty of bullying other classmates should not be kicked out of school, as a consequence for their actions. If they are kicked out they: will most likely/ never improve their actions, will have a decreased level of education, and will lose self-confidence.
I completely believe schools should be the one intervening in the problem not the parents. Parents aren’t with their children during school hours so for they aren’t responsible if there child is getting bullied because from personal experience I would know the parents wo...
Many schools have been sued because the school 's code of conduct were so out of date and could not do anything about kids who were bullied and committed suicide. Schools have no choice but to update the code of conduct because that is the only that protects schools from being sued. There is an extensive amount of harassment happening for the schools to not react too. There is many cases where schools have done nothing to stop bullying and harassment which is nonsense. For example, a girl named Phoebe Prince had been bullied and harassed but the school did nothing about it and eventually she committed suicide which led to the school for doing nothing. Schools need to be more involved especially when students are asking for help but the fact that the school did nothing is just ridiculous and not right at all. Code of conducts need to be very specific about what students could get in trouble for when posting or commenting on social media because what so many people say can really
On the other hand, in article 1,“An opinion poll conducted in February 2010, weeks after Phoebe’s death, found that 61% of Massachusetts voters said school bullying should be a crime”. This poll is completely biased because of the circumstances at the time. The community of Massachusetts was recovering from a loss with a terrible story that just happened to start with bullying. Most bullying cases are not like this and do not end with this extremum. In order to stop people from bullying without criminalizing them, teachers and adults need to set a good
... not giving them the resources to deal with bullying, because for the most part schools are under resourced. However, children have the right not to be bullied at school. It has negative consequences for both their mental and physical health, immediately and in their futures. Governments, schools, teachers and parents have an obligation to work collaboratively to ensure that children's rights are upheld. There needs to be progressive change towards resourcing our schools with the tools to help prevent and respond to bullying. Equal rights between adults and children is questionable, the power imbalance that is created has a significant negative impact on a child's right to be free from harm and their right to participate in school. Moreover, as a society we have a moral obligation to reflect on the social pressures we are creating, that our children have to face.