Broward County School Bd. v. Ruiz

493 So. 2d 474, 34 Educ. L. Rep. 1263, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1476, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8531
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 2, 1986
Docket85-607
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 493 So. 2d 474 (Broward County School Bd. v. Ruiz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Broward County School Bd. v. Ruiz, 493 So. 2d 474, 34 Educ. L. Rep. 1263, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1476, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8531 (Fla. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

493 So.2d 474 (1986)

BROWARD COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, Appellant,
v.
Jose RUIZ, Appellee.

No. 85-607.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

July 2, 1986.
Rehearing Denied September 30, 1986.

*475 Deborah C. Poore of Walton Lantaff Schroeder & Carson, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

*476 Michael G. Kaplan of Spellacy and McFann, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

ANSTEAD, Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment entered upon a jury verdict holding school officials liable for injuries inflicted upon appellee Jose Ruiz by fellow students. The case was tried in January, 1985 and the jury returned a verdict of $30,000.00 in favor of Ruiz. The trial court denied motions to set aside the verdict. We affirm the actions of the trial court.

Ruiz sued the School Board as a result of injuries he suffered in an assault at Hallandale High School on November 13, 1980. Ruiz, then a sophomore and a member of the school's junior varsity football team, had stayed briefly after school to have his picture taken with the rest of the team. The coach of the team had arranged for some of his players to practice with the varsity team that day, as the JV season had ended. However, Ruiz did not join this practice and instead, after the picture session, went to the cafeteria area to call his father for a ride home. Ruiz testified that his normal routine after practice had been to go to the cafeteria area to call his father and wait for a ride. The coach remained with the rest of the JV team at the varsity practice.

The cafeteria was located in the center of the main campus building. The precise location of the incident was across from the cafeteria door, in an area containing benches and pay phones. While waiting there for his father, Ruiz was attacked and beaten by three other students: Anthony Wilson, Jimmy Wright, and Ray Sands. According to Ruiz's testimony, he was sitting on a bench and looking at a book when he heard someone say "Hey." After that he lost consciousness and woke up in a hospital room. The only other witness to testify was a female student, Lateasea Fredericks. Fredericks and two other friends were in the area waiting for a bus. Fredericks knew the boys who beat Ruiz, but she had not seen Ruiz before. Fredericks stated that Wilson first said something to Ruiz, after which the two got into an "argument." Ruiz then turned around and started walking backwards away from Wilson in the direction of the office, when he was attacked from behind by Wright and severely beaten by all three students. Two custodians who had been in the cafeteria testified that they had been tricked into leaving the area by another group of students who told them that a custodian in another part of the building was in trouble. When they returned some thirty minutes later they found Ruiz on the floor. No direct connection was established between the two incidents.

School principal Linda Brown testified that responsibility to provide adequate supervision and security for students was delegated to teachers, administrators, and security personnel. However, these employees were not required to remain at the school for more than fifteen to twenty minutes after the last classes ended at 2:45 p.m. Significantly, no one was specifically instructed to watch the small group of students who regularly congregated in the cafeteria area after school to wait for the bus or for rides. Although one custodian testified that he sometimes took this responsibility upon himself, Brown stated that the custodians' responsibilities were limited to cleaning the building. In the case of after school extra-curricular activities, the coach or club sponsor would have supervisory responsibility. Coaches were instructed to remain on campus until the students had secured rides home. However, until practice was over, the coach's responsibility was over the students at the practice. The JV coach testified that it was not his duty to patrol the cafeteria or common areas after practice.

To prevail on a theory of negligent supervision by a teacher, a plaintiff must establish (1) the existence of a teacher-student relationship giving rise to a legal duty to supervise; (2) the negligent breach of that duty by the teacher; and (3) the proximate causation of the student's injury by the teacher's negligence. Collins v. *477 School Board of Broward County, 471 So.2d 560 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985). In Collins, this court found a duty of supervision to exist where a substitute teacher was conducting a shop class in which a student was sexually assaulted. 471 So.2d at 564. One of the controlling factors identified in Collins was the fact that class was in session and the school had an absolute right to control the students' behavior at that time. Id. In contrast is Benton v. School Board of Broward County, 386 So.2d 831 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980), in which the court found no duty to exist where a kindergarten student left the class unaccompanied to go to the bathroom, and another student closed the bathroom door on her finger. 386 So.2d at 834. The court in Benton viewed the imposition of a duty in that case to be "demonstrably unreasonable," for it would require the teacher to abandon her co-existing responsibility to the remainder of the class. Id., see also Rupp v. Bryant, 417 So.2d 658, 668 n. 26 (Fla. 1982) (duty will not be imposed where inconsistent with duty to supervise generally). With respect to the responsibility of the JV coach, we think Benton is more closely analogous to the present facts. If a kindergarten teacher is held not to have a duty to leave her class behind and accompany one student to the bathroom, then surely it cannot be said that a football coach has a duty to leave an ongoing practice to accompany a sixteen year old student to the telephone.

Although we agree with the School Board's contention that an inadequate case has been made as to any breach of supervision by the JV coach, we believe there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find a breach of the duty to provide adequate security to its students. While a school board is not an insurer against a student being injured, the school board is entrusted with the care of the students and has a legal duty to properly supervise student activity. Rupp, 417 So.2d at 666; Benton, 386 So.2d at 834. The question is whether the absence of any supervisory personnel in the cafeteria area at the time of the beating constituted actionable negligence.[1] In other words, did the school have a duty to provide some form of security in this area to prevent incidents from occurring? The School Board argues that this duty is foreclosed by Relyea v. State, 385 So.2d 1378 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980). Relyea held that the decisions of a university regarding "whether to provide security guards, parking attendants, security gates, and the numbers thereof" are discretionary and protected by sovereign immunity. 385 So.2d at 1382. We cannot agree that Relyea controls.

Initially we would note that there are obvious differences between the supervisory and security responsibilities at a state university, like the one involved in Relyea, and a public high school. The age of the children and the authority of the school over them are significant factors. In both Benton and Collins we confirmed the existence of a duty to provide supervision and protection to minor students on the school premises.

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493 So. 2d 474, 34 Educ. L. Rep. 1263, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1476, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/broward-county-school-bd-v-ruiz-fladistctapp-1986.