Injuries at School

Los Angeles School Injury Lawyers

Children spend almost one-fourth of their total waking hours in school or on school property. Annually, one out of every fourteen school children suffers a temporarily disabling injury at school.

The most frequent causes of school-related injuries requiring hospitalization are falls and sports activities. School injuries are most likely to occur on playgrounds, athletic fields and in gymnasiums. While playgrounds are associated with the majority of injuries among elementary school students, athletics, including both physical education classes and organized sports, account for the majority of injuries among secondary school students.

Children can also be injured en route to school on school buses, or as a result of abuse.

Team Sports Injuries

Statistics show those children ages 5 to 14 who play team basketball, football, soccer, baseball and softball can sustain serious injuries, including spinal cord injuries while playing their respective sports. Most organized sports-related injuries occur during practices rather than during games, and result from falls, collisions, overexertion or being struck by an object. The percentage of these injuries that occur while playing on school-based teams increases as children get older.

Physical Education Injuries

Physical education (PE) classes are required in most schools to fulfill national standards for a healthy lifestyle.  Statistics show no difference between boys and girls in terms of the incidence of injuries. Boys' injuries, however, are more likely to involve the head, to be diagnosed as a laceration or fracture, to be attributable to contact with a person or structure, and to occur during group activities. Girls' injuries, by contrast, are more likely to involve the lower extremities, to be strains and sprains, to be acute non-contact injuries, and to occur during individual activities.

School Playground Injuries

Lack of supervision is associated with 40 percent of playground injuries to elementary school children. A recent study found that children play without adult supervision more often on school playgrounds than in public playgrounds or childcare centers.

Ensuring Child Safety at School

Schools must ensure that any team sport or PE program includes proper physical and psychological conditioning, use of appropriate safety equipment, and a safe playing environment, adequate adult supervision and enforcement of safety rules. Children should be grouped according to skill level, weight and physical maturity, especially for contact sports.

To ensure safety on the playground, schools should avoid asphalt, concrete, grass and soil surfaces under playground equipment. Acceptable materials include shredded rubber, hardwood fiber mulch or chips, and fine sand.  Children should always be supervised when using playground equipment, and school officials should prevent unsafe behaviors like pushing, shoving, crowding.

School Bus-Related Injuries

School bus-related injuries account for $21 million of annual school injury medical costs.  While the majority (90%) of students who are non-fatally injured in school bus-related incidents are riding on the buses, child pedestrians also account for a large percentage of school bus-related fatalities. Many of these pedestrian injuries occur when children are boarding or exiting the school bus, due to the driver’s “blind spot,” which extends approximately 10 feet around the bus.

To ensure school bus safety, parents and school officials should ensure that children arrive at the bus stop early, wait for the bus to come to a complete stop before approaching the street, watch for cars, and avoid walking in the driver’s blind spot.

Bus drivers must ensure that children stay seated at all times and keep their heads and arms inside the bus while riding.  When exiting the bus, children should be taught to wait until the bus comes to a complete stop, exit from the front using the handrail to avoid falls, and cross the street at least 10 feet in front of the bus.

Child Abuse in School Settings

When parents send children to school, they expect they will be safe from abuse. In the hands of untrained and unqualified education professionals, however, child abuse can occur in schools or on school buses.

California law defines child abuse as any of the following:

• Physical injury by other than accidental means,
• Subjecting a child to willful cruelty or unjustifiable punishment;
• Sexual exploitation;
• Neglect by a parent or caretaker who fails to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care or supervision.

Statistics show that one in three girls and one in five boys will experience some form of abuse by the age of eighteen, and that it could happen at school.  The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), reports hundreds of allegations of school personnel using restraint and seclusion in abusive ways on children. Any reports of child abuse at school should be immediately reported to the proper authorities.

California law determines the grounds for State intervention in the protection of a child's well-being. The law requires that school nurses, social workers, teachers, counselors and other professionals who work with children report substantiated accounts of abuse to authorities within a specified time period.

Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyers

If your child is injured at school either during a sports activity or on the school bus, the school may be liable for damages for failure to create and ensure a safe school environment.   An experienced attorney at Lederer and Nojima can help you and your family to pursue your rights to compensation for your child’s serious injury at school and against any abusers of your children.  Please call Lederer and Nojima for a legal consultation.

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Lederer & Nojima LLP represents injury victims and their families in the Los Angeles area and throughout California, in communities such as Santa Monica, Torrance, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Palm Springs, Riverside, Encino, Sherman Oaks, South Bay, West Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Mid-Wilshire, Downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Monterey Park, El Monte, Montebello, Whittier, Burbank, Van Nuys, San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, and the Westside, and in counties including Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Ventura County.