A news item from The Land of My Birth: A middle school student in Madison, WI was ordered out of school, so he returned with a belt in hand, accosted another student, and got in a teacher's face while still wielding the belt. The teacher slapped the student in self-defense. The student's mother wants the teacher fired and is suing the school district for $35,000.
Just defending the teacher and the district from the lawsuit will probably cost far more than $35,000. My solution: give the mother a full refund on the tuition she paid to the Madison School District, provided however that she agrees to permanently remove all of her children from the public schools.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 19, 2003 02:57 PMThis is something that always confused me. You said 1) The woman is suing for 35K, and 2) defending the teacher will cost more than 35K. The advice seems to be that it is better to just give her the 35K, and my guess is that most schools and most companies will follow this.
Who is giving this advice? In the long run, defending the student is actually cheaper, since giving in will just invite more lawsuits. You can tell that lawyers think this way, because they always put a price on the lawsuit that is a little less than what they estimate will be the cost of an adequate defense.
Dom
Posted by: Dom on May 19, 2003 03:03 PMIf the kid returned with a belt in hand and started beating people, that is aggravated assault. The kid should be arrested for this, and since the mother is being blatantly irresponsible in siding with her delinquent child rather than punishing him for this behavior, the school should counter sue them over the assault.
Posted by: Tim on May 21, 2003 06:25 PM