As part of a school negligence case arising out of an assault committed by one of the school's students against another, one of the most important pieces of evidence is demonstrating that the school had notice, i.e., should have known, that the assaulting student was likely going to commit the violent act, yet the school failed to undertake reasonable corrective measures to prevent the occurrence.
Therefore, the plaintiffs in these cases will often rely on prior violent incidents, or threats of similar violence, in that assaulting student's history to prove their case.
As a lawyer who litigates these cases all the time, I've seen some strange behaviors in these students' pasts.
But I readily admit that I've never seen anything like what the plaintiff's investigation in a Maryland school negligence case that was reported on earlier today, where one student beat a visitor to the school's campus with a baseball bat that he had encircled in barbed wire.
Although the school has taken the position that there was nothing in this student's history suggested a propensity for violence, this student admitted to previously devouring the heart and brain of a man that had been a guest in his family's home.