http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337420,00.html
................."Vinicios Robacher's father, Soel Robacher, claims that his sleepy son's left ear was resting on his desk on Dec. 4 when math teacher Melissa Nadeau slammed her hand down so hard that his eardrum burst. Robacher says his son experienced an almost complete loss of hearing"....................
when they try to replicate the cause of the students hearing loss. There must have been a terrible amount of percussion to rupture the ear drum in the manner the student described. I have heard of ear drums rupturing from having a shot gun go off near the ears but not from hitting the top of a desk.
Seems to me that if this can be medically confirmed, than there should be a lawsuit here.
Like all torts, it comes down to 2 questions: Was the injury foreseeable, or was there negligence.
Clearly not the latter. But was it foreseeable?
I don't know.
Do you?
It was neither negligence nor foreseeable, even though you phrased the latter as a question. The question is, then, are you a prosecutor or defense attorney? Nobody on this site uses such concise written language as you,even though this is the first post from you I've read. "But was it foreseeable? I don't know. Do you?" I love it. Of course, I know. The kid was sleeping at the desk while a teacher was trying to teach. Instead of smacking the kid on the back of the skull, the teacher slammed a fist on the desk top and injured the inner eardrum of a future Rhodes Scholar. That's gonna cost.
So, if a high school student falls asleep in class then the teacher automatically has license to do anything she wants to wake him up? I don't think so. This teacher is lucky that she isn't charged with assault and battery.
I find it hard to believe that the teacher was able to slap her bare hand on the desk top hard enough to cause that sort of damage and yes in my opinion a teacher has every right to wake a student up, its not like she walked over and smacked him upside the head. You honestly think that slapping a hand on a desk constitues assult and battery? Good lord with thinking like that no wonder people are running around mucking up the courts with crazy lawsuits.
I can't even see how smacking the desk with a ruler or a book could make a sound loud enough to break someone's ear drum.
Maybe that father should have been paying more attention when his kid was up dicking around all night instead of getting enough sleep so that he could stay awake in school instead of out looking for a lawyer.
the desk top acts as a sounding board, magnifying the noise. If the student was actually resting his head flat on the desk a seal can form between the ear and the desk, eliminating any air buffer that would normally exist. You don't have to take my word for this. Get a tuning fork and strike it in the palm of your hand. Note the volume. Strike the tuning fork again and place the end on a wooden desk. Note that the volume is magnified many times over.
In case you didn't know, this is how a piano works.
Most high school desks aren't hollow like a piano, they are flat pieces of wood.
Even if they were I still just don't see how a teacher could hit the desk with their bare hand hard enough to cause this kind of damage to someone's ear.
Teachers have been slapping desks for years if ear drums could break that easily I think we're hear a lot more stories about things like this.
that he did recover a little bit of hearing in that ear. But that's awfully young to lose about half your hearing.
And that something is usually brown, sticky and falls out of the back end of a bull.
I also smell something. No, NOT what you're thinking of ... no, I smell a parent looking for their own personal PAYDAY from suing a school system.
GZ...I don't always agree 100% with all of your posts, but you hit the nail right on the head.
If I had been in a similar circumstance, my dad would have let me have it over sleeping in class. Then we would have dealt with the alleged medical consequences. I guarantee that it never would have crossed my parents mind to sue the teacher. (If the teacher had actually connected with my head, thus causing a medical issue...yes, my parents would have been pissed. But hitting the desk to jolt me awake? I can hear my dad's voice now saying "serves you right...")
Here we go again...pansey Americans wanting to defend slackers and overcrowed our legal system with stupid lawsuits.
Again, reward the slacker and punish the teacher. No wonder our schools are places of violence, disobedient students, etc....they can screw off all they want and their parents and other pansies will defend them.
Maybe next time he won't be disrespectful and sleep in class.
Who rattled your cage? Wake a student, sure. Punish a student, no problem. Damage or harm any student such that the injury requires medical attention and do so without just cause, and that teacher should have a major, major problem.
in my family...but let's have a go at illustrating what a home owning, responsible parenting, tax paying TPS parent would face in this same situation.
Assumption of situational facts.
1. The kids fell asleep in class.
2.The teacher struck the desk with sufficient force that it caused the students' ear drum to burst.
Parents call the school to complain. Parents are told it'll be 24 hours before they are allowed to talk to the teacher. Teacher will probably have a union representative with them.
If the meeting doesn't arrive at a satisfactory agreement - the parents typically talk to the Principal. The Principal cannot discuss it with the teacher without the union. Another 24 hour notice for a meeting is set up.
The Principals have no say so over what the teachers do.So this is largely a waste of time but most parents think the Principals are still supervising teachers. When in fact this is not true.
Oh,did I mention that the Principals also have their own union? All of this insulates them from any accountability over what goes on in the classroom.
So,Johnny has a busted ear drum, the teacher is probably not going to request their own discipline and the Principals can't help the family.
What OTHER option is there when a childs' been hurt and you cannot get the situation addressed AND......(drumroll please...)
If you DO NOT SEND THE CHILD BACK TO THAT TEACHER - you are in violation of the mandatory attendence laws.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh yes, one last thing. You are paying for the school, the teachers salary and the administrative costs :-)
Congratulations.
Katie's illustration has the ring of truth to it. That's probably pretty much the way things go these days.
You know, since we have police in the school, it doesn't seem like it would be any problem at all for the local law enforcement types to serve an arrest warrant in the classroom. I envision SWAT kicking in the door and ordering everyone to the floor. The teacher could be tazed a few times for resisting arrest, then slapped around and stuffed into a patrol car. You know, now that I think about it, this would be a good object lesson for the kids - here's what happens when you fail to respect authority.
Yeah. Assault and battery on a minor.
From OhioKat:Most high school desks aren't hollow like a piano, they are flat pieces of wood.
Which, surprise-surprise, is what the sounding board inside the piano actually is; a flat, solid piece of wood. The volume of the piano has nothing to do with a hollow interior.
Look, OhioKat, you don't have to take my word for it. Try it yourself. Do this when you're alone at home if you're the self-conscious sort who doesn't like answering a lot of questions from family members. Put your head down on the kitchen table so that your ear is sealed up tight to the tabletop. Now tap on the table. Gently! Note that when your ear is sealed to the table top the noise increases dramatically. If you live in an apartment and want to listen to the people next door, press your ear to the wall, and presto! you can hear them. The stethoscope works the same way. Want to listen to your significant other's heart beat? You can't hear it from across the room. You won't hear it when you're hugging and kissing. The only way to get a good listen is to press your ear against his/her chest, which eliminates the sound insulation provided by our atmosphere. Air, that is.
Failing all this, you can buy and read a book on physics which will explain all this is nauseating detail.
I understand what you're saying honestly I do.
I just don't think that she could smack that desk hard enough to cause that sort of damage. She would have probably broken her hand or hurt it like hell.
I also doubt the kid would have had his head flat down on the desk that way since the usual position is to fold your arms and lay your head down on them when copping a nap on a desk or table.
Everyone here that's saying this suit is BS... doesn't it make a difference if the suit is for compensatory damages rather than punitive damages?
I mean, especially if the family doesn't have insurance, should this teacher be able to take an action that costs the father of this boy thousands of dollars?
I mean, fine, it was an accident. The teacher definitely didn't mean this by slapping the desk. And sure, if the kid didn't sleep at his desk, there'd been no damage.
But what if that teacher, on her way home that night, accidentally rear-ended YOU? I mean, it wouldn't have happened if you had just turned left instead of right.
Wouldn't you expect her to pay for the damage to your car, even though she didn't mean it, even though it was an accident?
...Of course, and if she denies it being her fault, if she says the damage was already there, that she didn't even collide with your car, wouldn't you want your day in court? I mean, this is the REASON for civil courts, to decide questions of fact like this and then apply the law.