Issues of duty of care, including its non-delegable form that is closely associated with teaching, and issues of negligence are critical for a safe and inclusive learning environment for students. Accordingly, teachers who are aware of their legal responsibilities as outlined in their duty of care can save themselves both claims of negligence and incidents where students are harmed physically and mentally. Policy for educators tasked with preserving student safety are outlined in law, and key of these include mandatory reporting of child abuse, supervision for the prevention of injury, and protection from concerns such as bullying, particularly involving the internet. Duty of care owed to students by teachers is essentially the responsibility for maintaining their wellbeing. It is a legally enforceable duty in tort law, so it is important that teachers follow it directly. However, negligence can arise as a legal dispute when a plaintiff, usually a student, demonstrates that duty of care was breached, and they were caused harm as a direct result (Stewart, D. Knott, A. 2002). This is a particularly important legal issue to note, as teachers owe their students non-delegable duty of care due to their vulnerability and special dependence, which cannot be outsourced to any third party (Raniolo, R. n.d.). Consequently, teachers must be fully aware of the responsibilities they hold, and the potential dangers their students may face in their school environment.
Mandatory reporting of abuse against students are imperative for protecting them from dangerous situations at home, in which sexual, emotional, or even physical abuse may be occurring. In South Australia, Sections 6, 10, and 11 of the Children’s Protection Act 1993 detail that var...
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...7. ‘Web-based training in child maltreatment for future mandated reporters’ Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol. 31 (Issue 6) pp. 671-678.
Hammes, R.1979. ‘The tort and the teacher’ The Clearing House. 53, (2), pp. 104-108.
Newnham, H. 2000, ‘When is a teacher or school liable in negligence’, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 25 (Issue 1)
Potts, A, 2006, ‘Schools as dangerous places’, Educational Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 319-330, La Trobe University
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S. 2006. Diversity training for classroom teaching, pp. 125-134, New York, NY: Springer
Clelland, T, and Cushman, P. 2011 ‘A health promoting schools approach to bullying’, Set: Research Information for Teachers, Wellington: Academic OneFile, accessed 20/3/14
Roberts-Pittman, B. Slavens, J. and Balch, B. 2012. ‘The Basics of Cyberbullying’, School Administrator, Vol. 69 (Issue 4) pp. 32-37
A teacher’s most important duty is to protect the students they are in charge of. This duty includes both reasonably protecting students from harm and, when a student is harmed, reporting it to the proper authorities (Gooden, Eckes, Mead, McNeal, & Torres, 2013, pp. 103-109). There have been many court cases that reiterate this duty of school staff. One such case is Frugis v. Bracigliano (2003) where many staff at a school failed in their duty to protect students and allowed abuse to continue for years.
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 leading issue of the WA DoE Duty of Care for Students Policy is stated in Section 1.A “Teaching staff owe a duty to take reasonable care for the safety and welfare of students whilst students are involved in school activities or are present for the purposes of a school activity” (WA DoE, 2007, p. 3). This means teachers are legally responsible to protect students from reasonably foreseeable risks of harm whenever a relationship exists between a teacher and a student. Some examples include in the playground, the classroom or during a school excursion. The second important issue addressed in the WA DoE Duty of Care for Students Policy is how teachers use their professional judgement to assess dangers, guard against risk of injury to students, and determine levels of care required, based on their knowledge of individual students and the type of school activity undertaken.... ...
Groves, S. L., & Groves, D. L. (1981). Professional Discretion and Personal Liability of Teachers in Relation to Grades and Records. Education, 101(4), 335-340.
Another major reason why juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system is because many schools have incorporate the zero tolerance policy and other extreme school disciplinary rules. In response to violent incidents in schools, such as the Columbine High School massacre, school disciplinary policies have become increasingly grave. These policies have been enacted at the school, district and state levels with the hopes of ensuring the safety of students and educators. These policies all rely on the zero tolerance policy. While it is understandable that protecting children and teachers is a priority, it is not clear that these strict policies are succeeding in improving the safety in schools.
Cyberbullying has become a widespread problem. The more people have been using the internet, the more the number of cyberbullying incidents increase. According to document A, 25.1% of girls and 16.6% of boys reported being bullied in their lifetime. In addition to this, document A also
LaMorte, Michael. School Law: Cases and Concepts. 4th ed. London: Allyn and Bacon, 1993. Lane, Kenneth, Mary Jane Connelly, Julie Mead, Mark Gooden, and Suzanne Eckes, eds.
Giovannoni, J. M., & Becerra, R. M. Defining child abuse. New York: Free Press, 1996.
The mistreatment of children is classified by four types of actions: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect. Although, in recent years several steps have been taken to prevent the maltreatment of children it seems that child abuse is still prevalent in today's society. Countless children around the world suffer from some form of abuse and in many cases the same child experiences more than one. There is no exact number of victims because it difficult to measure the exact amount of children going through abuse. Child abuse almost always occurs in private, and because abuse is often hidden from view and its victims may be too young or too frightened to speak out, experts in child welfare suggest that its true prevalence
Shore, Marietta Saravia. (2011). “Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners” Chapter 2. Educating Everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners. http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx
McQuade, III, Samuel, James Colt, and Nancy Meyer. Cyber Bullying: Protecting Kids and Adults from Online Bullies. First Edition. Road West, Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2009. 47-49. Print.
Internet usage in children and adolescents has been increasing in a steadily fashion in the past number of years and with the increase in internet usage, a new form of bullying has developed – Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person,” (Merriam-Webster, 2012). This form of bullying can come through various mediums including but not limited to text messages, emails, videos, and social networking sites. There is an overwhelming amount of information that defines cyber bullying, identifies the demographics of bullies and victims of cyber bullying, and identifies the outcomes of cyber bullying on victims. More focus needs to be placed on who the perpetrators of this form of violence are and how this form of violence is linked to traditional bullying. This will allow researchers and practitioners to move forward with research and implementation preventative methods and intervention once the problem has already occurred.
...child sexual abuse, Child Abuse & Neglect, Volume 17, Issue 1, January-February 1993, Pages 67-70,
Tatchyn, Elizabeth and Bottom Line Research. “Negligence and the Parental Duty to Supervise Children”. Alberta: Bottom Line Research. Web. http://www.bottomlineresearch.ca/articles/articles/pdf/Negligence%20and%20the%20Parental%20Duty%20to%20Supervise%20Children.pdf.
The most recent acts of violence by children have prompted us as a nation to look at the causes and possible solutions to this crisis in our schools. In fact, according to Public Agenda, a national organization that conducts public opinion research on educational issues, school safety was identified as the most important issue affecting schools by those surveyed (Johnson & Immerwahr, 1994/1995).