Who's Responsible for School Safety?

• Author: Thomerson, Julie

When tragedy strikes, it's natural to look for someone to blame, but that's a difficult task when it happens in school. Intervention can interfere with student rights.

Sabrina Steger says the warning signs were there. Someone should have stopped 14-year-old Michael Carneal before he shot and killed her daughter and two others during a school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Ky., three years ago.

"I know that teachers sometimes worry about liability, but I would hate to think that my daughter is dead because someone was worried about their job," she says.

In schools nationwide, officials are grappling with questions that pit safety against student rights.

Were victims Kayce Steger, Jessica James and Nichole Hadley killed because school officials failed to act?

Would Carneal have been stopped if different policies or programs were in place?

Almost three years after the shooting, questions and legal battles continue. The victims' families have filed civil suits against 78 different parties, including makers of violent video games and movies, teachers, administrators, school board officials, parents, other students and the shooter himself. They reached a settlement in the suit against Carneal. Other claims are pending or on appeal.

In reality, statistics show that school shootings are rare. But there's a perception that schools are dangerous places and that more needs to be done to prevent violence within their walls. Resulting conflicts range from assigning blame to questioning the constitutionality of school safety policies. Some victims claim that school officials should have noticed the child's potential for violence or that school safety policies were insufficient. Yet the underlying questions remain: Who is ultimately responsible for school safety? And when do policies go too far?

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE?

When a child commits a violent act in school, the finger of blame can be pointed in many different directions. Victims have filed suit in an attempt to assign responsibility or seek compensation, claiming that school officials should have noticed the child's potential for violence or that school safety policies were insufficient. Most of these lawsuits have yet to be resolved.

Some of the families of shooting victims at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., allege that local school and law enforcement officials knew of the killers' violent tendencies and should have intervened. In Mississippi, the mother of one of two girls killed in a shooting spree at Pearl High School filed a lawsuit against the school district, claiming it could have taken steps to prevent the tragedy. And the list goes on.

In many of these cases, courts are trying to determine whether someone failed to meet an obligation and whether that failure resulted in violence. These are hard decisions to make, since a number of factors may indicate that a child has potential for disruptive or violent behavior. Regardless, suing parties often contend that some school employee had a critical opportunity to intervene, but did not.

Does the primary responsibility lie on the shoulders of teachers and school staff? Mike Breen, attorney for the Paducah families, says that teachers have an obligation to pay attention and step in when necessary. "When you realize that there are half a million incidents of student violence in the United States every month and 10 percent involve serious crimes, then as much as we dislike the idea of teachers being vigilant against student misconduct, the reality is that we have no choice. They are our first line of defense."

Others argue that without better tools, guidelines and protections, teachers are not equipped to handle every situation. Since identifying children as potentially violent can lead to liability and constitutional issues, they need training to recognize those who need help and to know how to respond. Often they believe they are restricted by federal requirements, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act--when, in fact, they are not.

WHERE'S THE LINE?

School officials perform a balancing act every day. Although intervention can prevent violence, some efforts can also infringe upon student rights and result in a lawsuit. At the very least, teachers run the risk of labeling problem children and stigmatizing them for the remainder of their educational careers. But avoiding involvement...