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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Sarah
Wannemuehler |
“A lawsuit can affect your ministry and diocese.”
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
WESTFIELD — Sarah Wannemuehler, a nationally known expert on school law, uses this true story to show how common sense has fallen victim to an increasingly litigious society:
It’s Saturday, and some kids are playing on a school playground. To retrieve a Frisbee, one of the children climbs onto a dumpster, then onto the roof. For some reason, he decides to walk across a skylight. It breaks, and he falls to his death. A lawsuit is filed. The school is found guilty of wrongful death because the dumpster was too close to the building.
Although that civil case followed a real tragedy, “People will sue you and they’ll sue you for just about anything. All it takes is a $35 filing fee,” Wannemuehler told approximately 400 Catholic school educators at “Diocesan Teacher Day,” Nov. 6 at St. Maria Goretti School.
“A lawsuit can affect your ministry and your diocese,” Wannemuehler said.
She was keynote speaker at the biennial diocesan event, which included more than two dozen sessions that focused on everything from suicide prevention and bullying to prayer and proper nutrition.
“I
think she’s fabulous,” said Cindy Utley, art teacher at Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel School, Carmel. “She has been in the classroom and what she said is
pertinent about the litigious society we live in. There’s no common sense
anymore.”
Anna
Bragg teaches technology at Our Lady of Grace School in Noblesville. She
said she liked Wannemuehler’s discussion of the dangers of using the
Internet to talk to, or about, students.
“Careful boundaries” between technology and students are critical, “especially online,” Bragg said.
Wannemuehler is a former Benedictine nun who holds a doctorate in education, with an emphasis in school law, from Spalding University in Louisville. She taught in the Louisville public schools and Catholic schools for many years, and now is principal at St. Michael the Archangel School in Cary, N.C. She teaches college courses and lectures nationally. Her husband is a psychotherapist.
Her children attended Catholic schools. Whenever a teacher said that one of them did something wrong, “I believed the teacher. Now, if a kid does something wrong, they blame the teacher,” she said.
Teachers have been sued because parents claimed they weren’t doing their jobs. Because of that, it’s imperative that lesson plans and grade books be kept up-to-date, Wannemuehler said. They are legal documents that can be used in defending oneself in court.
Private schools operate under different rules than public schools. In a Catholic school, she said, “students leave their constitutional rights at the door.”
That means, for instance, that the school can enforce a dress code without worrying about being sued for violating a student’s First Amendment rights. No reasonable or probable cause is required for a principal to order a search in a Catholic school.
Wannemuehler said that school handbooks are important because they state what a student must, and must not, do. Parents sign a legal contract, agreeing that the child will abide by the rules. They have no legal right to be represented by an attorney when challenging those rules.
Catholic schools must follow state statutes and regulations concerning the number of school days per year, graduation requirements, immunization, safety and the like.
Although students in Catholic schools do not have constitutional due-process protections, the schools must observe the principles of common law that guarantee fairness. For instance, students must be given notice if they are found in violation of school rules; they must be given an opportunity to be heard, and decisions must made impartially.
Most school-related lawsuits, Wannemuehler said, involve allegations of negligence.
“You have to tell kids at least once a year not to trip over electrical cords,” she said.
She recounted the story of a Catholic school teacher who failed to tell her students about the potential danger of a lighted candle. A child was severely burned when a paper costume caught fire. Although the teacher was injured extinguishing the fire, a $1.2 million judgment was lodged against the archdiocese.
Teachers on playground duty can be held liable if a child is hurt and they are found negligent. The playground is “one of the high-risk areas in the school,” Wannemuehler said.
Negligence lawsuits can involve allegations of physical, psychological and spiritual injury. Many states have outlawed paddling in schools; even a “full frontal” hug by a teacher can be the basis for a civil suit. The “side-by-side” hug is considered to be more appropriate.
Lawsuits accusing teachers of defamation of character are common. Teachers can talk freely among themselves, but they can be legally liable if they slander a student outside their circle of professional colleagues.
“You’re a teacher 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Wannemuehler said. “You represent the school wherever you go.”
Teachers also can be sued for “alienation of the parent-child relationship.” That’s when a teacher oversteps his role as a teacher, and assumes the role of the parent.
Catholic school teachers work under year-to-year contracts, and principals can fire them after giving proper notice. A court can award a teacher punitive damages, but it cannot force the principal to rehire the teacher unless a teachers’ union is involved, she said.
The use of computer technology should be a major concern for schools, Wannemuehler said. She advised teachers to be extremely cautious in the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace when “meeting” students and parents online.
E-mails can be dangerous legally. They can be altered, then forwarded to somebody else.
Wannemuehler urged teachers to be teachers, and to avoid being seen as a student’s “friend.” A teacher should never criticize a student’s parents.
Despite all the legal pitfalls, no other profession is as important as teaching, she told the educators, because “you’re the one who makes a difference in every profession in the world.”