PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) – “Compelling” evidence that his school failed to protect him was in the corner of plaintiff who was beaten by a fellow student, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled in refusing to overturn a jury verdict for him.
Teachers at Ponaganset High School possibly breached their duty to protect Mark Dextraze from an assault in the hallway almost 10 years ago, the court ruled in a June 28 opinion that rejected the Foster-Glocester Regional School District’s motion for judgment.
That motion was also turned away by the trial judge during a four-day trial that produced a $75,000 verdict for Dextraze, who argued the school should have created a behavior plan for Timothy Bernard, considering his behavior while at the school.
That history included numerous instances of misbehavior, including conduct that violated the school’s sexual harassment and anti-bullying policies.
“Mr. Bernard received no progressive punishment beyond detention until January 2011, when he was suspended,” says the decision, authored by Justice Melissa Long.
“Nor did the high school refer him to a guidance counselor, social worker or school psychologist.”
In January 2012, Bernard broke Dextraze’s jaw in two places and dislocated his teeth. Dextraze was walking down a hallway after lunch and heard people behind him cursing him. He passed five or six classrooms while pleading to be left alone, but he did not see any teachers.
Dextraze grabbed a water bottle from a classroom and re-entered the hallway, where Bernard punched him in the face. Dextraze stood up after falling and was punched in the mouth.
“The teacher who was in the classroom that Mr. Dextraze had exited came into the hallway and told everyone to get to class,” Long wrote. “Mr. Dextraze told the teacher that Mr. Bernard had hit him, and the teacher only reiterated that they needed to get to class.”
Dextraze’s jaw was wired and four screws were placed in his mouth. He missed more than two weeks of school and his grades worsened.
The school district argued the state law under which Dextraze sued does not provide for civil liability, but the trial judge ruled there exists a duty to “provide adequate supervision to the students” under a 2013 state Supreme Court ruling.
“The plaintiffs’ burden in this case was to establish that the school district breached its duty to adequately supervise the students in its care,” Long wrote. “The plaintiffs presented compelling evidence that the school district failed to exercise the degree of care required to protect its students in circumstances where a known disruptive and aggressive student presented a reasonably foreseeable harm to other students.
“Given the evidence of Mr. Bernard’s lengthy disciplinary history, including a fight with a student in 2011, and an assault in the high school hallway two months before the assault on Mr. Dextraze, Mr. Bernard’s assault on Mr. Dextraze was reasonably, even abundantly, foreseeable.”
Dextraze also noted that some teachers were designated as primary supervisors and were expected to be present in hallways during class changes.