Granted, proving that a school was negligent, and that the school's negligence was a substantial factor in causing injury to a student isn't easy in New York. But there are some circumstances where a school will be hard-pressed to deny their culpability.

One such example is where the school loses track of one of its students, particularly when the student is very young or a special needs student, where the student will inherently require greater supervision. 

Sadly, this is precisely what happened in a case two months ago, when a 14 year-old mute boy went missing from the New York City Department of Education's Riverview School of District 75, which is for children with the most serious disabilities. The school's video footage showed him leaving the school at 12:40 p.m., and no one from the school even noticed that he was missing for another hour. As of 2:40 p.m., the school still didn't know that he had left the building, as they asked his mother to get on the public address system to entice him to come out of hiding.

Not surprisingly, this child's family filed a claim against the City. 

Quite frankly, I don't know how the Department of Education can defend its actions in this case; it's inexcusable.

 

Jonathan Cooper
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Non-Compete, Trade Secret and School Negligence Lawyer
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