Tips for getting answers when your child is injured at school
Children get injured at school. Children can be accident-prone. They slip, they fall, they run into things. They are, at times, careless. Through no fault of their own, they can be involved in a personal injury situation that prevents them from, well, being kids. And doing kid things.
These accidents happen often around the home … and often at school, where your child is supervised by teachers, staff members and other parents. These personal injuries could result only in minor cuts and scrapes, but sometimes major injuries can occur when your child is outside of your immediate care.
How should parents respond if their child is injured at school?
It all depends on how the injury occurred. Sometimes kids run in the hallways and they end up falling. Sometimes an injury happens in gym class – sliding into first base, twisting an ankle while running on the track, hurting themselves while not paying attention to a closing door, for example, or other students on a stairway. Occasionally other children are the cause of the injury and in some instances, negligence on the school’s part could be the culprit.
The first thing to do, anytime an injury occurs in Ft Lauderdale, is to seek out medical help immediately. If the injury happens at school, you need the school to contact you, get your child the medical attention he or she needs and then get your child further assistance, if the injury is severe enough.
But what if there’s a rut or hole in the outside playing field that your child trips over, causing injury? What if a piece of playground equipment hasn’t been properly maintained – a screw comes loose, making something malfunction, or your child accidentally slips or falls from another playground toy that should have been looked at for possible problems? Other scenarios are also possible: Your child might be pushed by another child – he might be deliberately tripped in the hallway or, sadly and unfortunately, slapped or hit, causing injury.
If your child is hurt or seriously injured on school property, is the school liable? Yes … and sometimes, no. If the school fails to maintain a railing or a piece of gym equipment that causes the injury, it could be deemed negligent in not fixing the situation. Teachers and staff could be found liable if they are not adequately supervising children on the playground. Sometimes, though, the accident is not the school’s fault. Let’s return to that playground equipment. Could a faulty mechanism or bad construction cause your child harm? Perhaps, and if that is the case, the manufacturer could be held responsible for the malfunction that caused the personal injury. Sometimes the district’s own policy could be liable if, for instance, children are allowed in a certain area of the school that is known to be a hazardous area, where there is overgrown brush, for example, or heavy equipment. Is there an anti-bullying policy in place? If not, the school could be held liable if your child is repeatedly suffering injuries from disputes with other children.
So what should you pay attention to in the aftermath of your child receiving an injuring while at school? First of all, document everything. Take pictures of the injuries and, if the accident occurred on school property, the scene of the injury. Talk to the principal and to any teachers and staff who may have been witnesses so you can get as accurate a picture as possible of what occurred. If there was a police report filed, make sure to get a copy of the report. Immediately take your child to the doctor and get copies of all medical reports. If the injury was treated at the school, talk to the school nurse and make sure you receive a report from the nurse about the extent of the injuries and the treatment the child received.
If you have talked to everyone involved or anyone who would have information about the injury and are still not convinced that everything was done to protect your child from injury, or that there may have been negligence that caused the injury, you should contact an expert Ft. Lauderdale personal injury attorney. An attorney can help guide you through each step of the process, find out information that you may not have been able to uncover, and assess and evaluate what other steps may be necessary.
A capable personal injury attorney will determine whether the injury necessitates compensation and, if so, how much would be necessary to fully cover all of your child’s present and future medical bills.
Don’t take on this long, laborious process yourself. You child’s injury, if serious enough, could affect him or her for the rest of their young adult lives – perhaps even further along the road. Make sure you have all your bases covered through an attorney who has navigated the system and knows how to get you and your child the best results and the highest level of compensation … so they can continue to be kids.
Don’t take on this long, laborious process yourself. You child’s injury, if serious enough, could affect him or her for the rest of their young adult lives – perhaps even further along the road. Make sure you have all your bases covered through an attorney who has navigated the system and knows how to get you and your child the best results and the highest level of compensation … so they can continue to be kids.
