School Liability when Students Are Injured on Campus

In my practice as a Southern California accident and injury attorney, my job involves keeping up-to-date with important developments in Tort law.

As such, I came across the recent California Court of Appeal’s decision in Achay v. Huntington Beach Union High School District.

The case is important because it clarifies that a school district owes a duty of reasonable care to students on campus, even if the student is injured by a 3rd party. As the Court put it, “schools have a special relationship with their students; therefore, schools are required to use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hand of third parties acting negligently or intentionally (CA v. William S. Hart High School, (2012) 53 Cal.4th 861).

Achay was a 10th grader at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. On March 29, 2018, she finished her track and field practice early, so she walked with a friend to Starbucks. They left campus for 45 minutes and returned at about 5:30. Achay walked to her locker to get her books. She then walked with her friend through the school swimming pool area on her way to the parking lot. That’s when a former student named Meer, who was no longer enrolled at Edison, rollerbladed past her and stabbed her. Achay suffered serious injuries and required two surgeries as a result of the stabbing.

Achay sued the Huntington Beach Unified School District for negligence. She argued that the school was negligent in not maintaining security to make sure that people like Meer couldn’t just enter the premises as they please. Evidence in the case showed that after 2:30PM, Edison was like a public park in that the school was open and accessible to anyone, even non-students like Meer.

The School District argued it did not owe Achay a duty of reasonable care because Achay walked off school property after track practice ended, and she was off-campus for 45 minutes. The trial court agreed and granted summary judgment, dismissing the case. The Court of Appeal reversed, agreeing with Achay that the District owed her a duty of reasonable care.

The Court noted that “ample case authority establishes that school personnel owe students under their supervision a protective duty of ordinary care, for beach of which the school district may be held liable.” This includes the duty to use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hands of third parties acting negligently or intentionally.

Furthermore, said the Court, schools have a general duty to supervise the conduct of children on school grounds during school sessions, school activities, recesses, and lunch periods. Here, Achay was stabbed on campus, after track and field practice. The Court deemed this a “school-related or encouraged” function. The Court noted that because of this, the School District owed Achay a duty of reasonable care, much the same as if Achay would have been attacked in middle of chemistry class.

Whether the District breached this duty is a separate question—a question of fact for a jury to decide.

The case is important because it reiterates that schools in California owe students a duty of reasonable care. Schools must protect students—even from the negligence of third parties.

If you have questions about a school injury or school liability, discuss your case with an attorney familiar with these issues.

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