Your Legal Options When Your Child is Injured
What to do if your child has been injured at school, on the school bus, on an airline, or some other common carrier.

August 01, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Every day, parents are left with no choice but to entrust others to care for their children. Whether they are putting their children on a flight to visit grandparents out-of-state or sending their children off to school on the bus, they do so believing that their children will be protected and come home to them in the same condition that they left.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Take for example a lawsuit filed this July in Cook County Circuit Court against Southwest Airlines. The suit was filed by a father who alleges that the air carrier failed to protect his son from the sexual advances of a female passenger.

In 2008, his then 14-year-old son was flying alone on a Southwest flight from Chicago-Midway to Orlando. According to the complaint, the female passenger seated next to his son - who was obviously intoxicated - offered him illegal drugs and sexually harassed him.

The boy left his seat several times to try to get away from the passenger and asked the flight attendants to move him. The flight attendants, however, told him to remain seated. The boy was traumatized by the experience and refused to fly home alone from Orlando. His father had to fly to Florida to bring him home.

Common Carrier Liability

Parents should not have to worry about their children being sexually harassed on a plane. As a common carrier, the airline owes the highest duty of care to its passengers. This means that airlines must act reasonably to prevent harm to passengers and ensure that they reach their destinations safely. In some states, common carriers have an even greater standard of care when the passenger is a minor.

When a child is injured as a passenger on a common carrier, the carrier may be held legally responsible for the injury. This includes injuries caused by employees of the common carrier and, in some instances, injuries caused by other passengers.

Common carriers include airplanes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation that are open to the general public for a fee. In Chicago, this includes the Metra rail and CTA buses.

School District Liability

In the last couple of years, there have been several stories in Chicago about children being sexually assaulted while a passenger on a school bus, either by the bus driver or other students. This includes the horrific story of a West Loop bus driver who sexually assaulted a mentally impaired 17-year-old girl on a school bus in January 2010.

Like common carriers, schools owe a heightened duty of care to children. Illinois courts have ruled that when a child is assaulted by a school bus driver, the school district may be held liable for the assault. Likewise, the school district also may be held liable if another school employee, like a teacher, sexually assaults or otherwise harms a child.

Sometimes, however, the harm is caused not by a school employee, but by a classmate. In cases where a child is being harassed, threatened or bullied by other students, the school may be held liable for the harm if it does nothing to stop it.

For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students have a right to sue the school district under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act for sexual harassment by other students. The school district may be liable for the harassment if it can be shown that the school had notice of the harassment and did nothing to stop it, and that the harassment was so "severe, pervasive and objectively offensive" to deprive the student of access to educational opportunities and benefits.

Other Third Party Liability

Other third parties besides common carriers and schools may be responsible for an accident injuring a child. For example, a parent may allow their child to ride home from school with a friend's parents. If the child is injured in a car accident during the ride home, the person responsible for the accident may be legally responsible for the child's injuries.

Though children living at home are covered under their parents' auto insurance policies, this coverage may not be sufficient to cover all of the child's losses - particularly if the child is seriously injured and requires extensive medical treatment. In these cases, parents have the option of taking legal action against the responsible party to recover compensation for the child's medical bills, as well as pain and suffering.

Conclusion

If your child has been harmed in an accident at school, on public transportation, or while under the care of another person, contact an experienced attorney today. You may have legal options available to you, such as filing a personal injury claim.

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