Parents Threaten Lawsuit After Social Media Prank Causes Injury

A new social media prank is causing some problems for school children, parents, and now also their teachers. A young woman described the incident as follows. She was asked by two kids at school to jump as high as she could to see if she could jump higher than another student. When she jumped, the other kids swept her legs out from under her causing her to tumble back. She injured her head and her neck as well as other parts of her body.

The incident is part of a growing trend. Kids ask other kids to do this then they post the results on social media for likes and followers. But the girl’s parents were not amused and she was seriously injured by the stunt. They are now contemplating filing a lawsuit against the school district for allowing this to happen. Below, we’ll discuss the merits of their case.

Is the School District Responsible?

Personal injury laws require that a plaintiff establish that a defendant owed them a duty of care, were negligent in the exercise of that duty of care, and that injuries resulted from that negligence. School districts in particular owe each of their students a duty of care and this includes preventing students from injuring one another.

However, the plaintiff has the burden of showing that the school either knew or should have known about a dangerous situation or was otherwise negligent in the administration of students. Here, the main question is whether or not the injury or situation was foreseeable and therefore preventable. If it was preventable, then the parents have a case against the school.

The school district may be responsible based on the facts of this case, but there isn’t enough information mentioned in the article to establish that a liability claim against the school would be successful. If there was someone who was supposed to be watching the children at the time the incident occurred and they were negligent in their duties, then that would be enough to establish liability in a court of law. Otherwise, the case is considerably murkier.

Sovereign Immunity 

In addition to the aforementioned issues, injuries that happen at public schools are subject to sovereign immunity statutes. This is something that the Parkland parents are coming to understand now as the attempt to file a lawsuit against the Mary J. Douglas high school for failing to protect their kids against school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Statutes prevent any individual litigant from collecting more than $200,000 per claim or $300,000 per lawsuit. This means that the Parkland parents would only be entitled to split a maximum $300,000 settlement.

Talk to a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Today

If your child has been injured due to the negligence of another party, you are entitled to sue to recover damages. Call the Miami personal injury attorneys at the office of Alan Goldfarb, P.A. today and schedule a free consultation. We can help.

Resource:

local10.com/news/local/2020/02/11/student-injured-in-social-media-prank-could-lead-to-lawsuit-against-miami-dade-county-school-board/

https://www.goldfarbpa.com/florida-supreme-court-to-hear-evidence-in-dashcam-crash-case/