Torts Q - Teacher's duty to parents of students Forum

[Lightworks]

How exactly does this work? Obviously there's a duty to the student, but how would negligence claims by parents against teachers work? Assuming student does not want to sue the teacher on their own.

This isn't covered in our textbook, but came up on a practice question. Could the parent bring claims for emotional distress or negligence resulting from an inappropriate relationship between their child and the child's teacher? Or would they just be better off suing the school for negligent supervision/hiring/etc.?

[jrc223]

In my torts casebook there was a case in Hawaii where the parents were able to bring a bystander NIED claim against a teacher who molested their child, even though they weren't at the scene, didn't witness it, and the child wasn't seriously injured. It seemed like this was more the exception rather than the rule though. I think normally the duty just runs to the student.

[BVest]

Assuming student does not want to sue the teacher on their own.

Generally speaking, a guardian can sue on behalf of a minor (as "next friend" or some other designation). I'm not aware of any states that don't do it that way. Any other claims (such as NIED in a jurisdiction that doesn't strictly follow zone-of-danger test) that the parents might bring on their own would be to seek damages in addition to those for the minor.

[Lightworks]

So even if the lawsuit is brought against the student's will and he/she refuses to participate? In the question, the student was 17 when he/she and the teacher developed an inappropriate relationship, but is now 18 and refuses to bring any claims.

I think the gist of it (this hypo was summarized to me by a friend) was that the relationship with the teacher caused the student's relationship with her parents to deteriorate, and the parents want to sue for emotional distress to themselves resulting from this.

[BVest]

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