My daughter got a head injury from a bully at school
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My daughter got a head injury from a bully at school
My daughter was going to open the classroom
door at school when a boy classmate ran up
from behind her and pushed her into the door
she fail and hit her head on the bottom of the
door she now has a gash and a lump in her head
can i sue the school for not watching the
children properly
Asked on March 21, 2016 under Personal Injury, Illinois
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
First, if, as we hope, your daughter is fundamentally ok and just has a gash that will heal, there is little or no point in suing the school even if (see below) they were liable: you can only recover an amount of money equivalent to the actual injury and costs, such as your out-of-pocket (not paid by insurance) medical costs and, if there are several months or more of significant life impairment or disability, some amount for "pain and suffering." But if this resolves quickly and your daughter is ok, you'll spend more on the lawsuit then you get back.
Second, the school would only be liable if at fault in some way. At fault means that they had some warning that this other child would physically attack your daughter but, despite having warning or notice of a problem, declined to take reasonable steps to prevent an attack. If there was no reason to suspect the other child would suddenly shove your daughter, the school did nothing wrong--no school can prevent child A from suddenly attacking child B without warning.
Note: if there is some lasting injury to your child, even if the school would not be liable (e.g. no warning), you could sue the attacker's family: a child's parents or legal guardians are liable for their child's wrongful acts.
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